LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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The Wit and Wisdom 

Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, 



AN INTRODUCTORY 



RKV. WILLIAIvl ^A^RIGHT, D.D. 



^ r r. 



BALTIMORE: 

R. H. WOODWARD COMPANY. 






COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY 

R. H. Woodward Company. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



BY WILLIAM WRIGHT, D.D, 



Some thirty-five years ago, Charles H. Spurgeon met me 
at the parting of life's ways, and sent me on the path which 
I have since been trying to travel. From that time forward, 
he and I became fast friends, but during the past ten years I 
had a standing invitation to spend my Saturday afternoons 
with him. I used my privilege sparingly, but sufficiently to 
have seen my many-sided friend from many points of view. 
A few side-lights from the oiiter and inner circles may prove, 
not only interesting, but useful. 

I first met Mr. Spurgeon at Belfast. I was then preparing 
for college, with a hankering after the Indian civil service. 
Mr. Spurgeon preached in Dr. Cook's church. He singled 
me out, and spoke to me as if no one else was present. 
There was no thrumming of theology, and no sanctimonious 
posing, but a clear, direct, hot, living, personal appeal, that 
dare not be resisted. As soon as the benediction was pro- 
nounced, Mr. Spurgeon descended from the pulpit, and, 
seeing me looking at him, he held out his hand to me when 
he was about two-thirds down the stairs. I stepped forward 
and seized it. "How did you like my sermon?" were his 
first words. The human, manly, straightforward, genuine 
ring of the question clinched the effect already produced on 



4 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

a youth in search of what was genuine. Many started anew 
on life's journey that night, and few of Spurgeon's people 
ever turned back. 

Fifteen years later, I went to the Tabernacle on my way 
home from Damascus. The same straightforward English- 
man was preaching the same straightforward gospel in all its 
fulness and freeness, and without any apology for its severity. 
I walked into the vestry without introduction. He had not 
seen me for ten years, but he recognized me in the crowd 
without a moment's hesitation. He ran over the books on 
the Holy Land, stating the merits of each, and ended by 
saying, "I suppose Thompson's 'The Land and the Book' is 
still the best on the manners and customs." He had the 
literature of Palestine at his finger ends. 

When I came to be Mr. Spurgeon's near neighbor, I found 
that he was acquainted with all literature. His power of 
reading was, perhaps, never equalled. He would sit down 
to five or six large books, and master them at one sitting. 
He sat with his left hand on the left side of the book, and, 
pushing his right hand up the page on the right side of the 
book until the page became projected, he turned it over, 
and proceeded to the next page. He took in the contents 
almost at a glance, and his memory never failed him as to 
what he read. He made a point of reading half-a-dozen of 
the hardest books weekly, as he said he wished to rub his 
mind against the strongest ; and there was no skipping. I 
often tested the thoroughness of his reading. 

''Natural Law in the Spiritual World" reached him and 
me about the same time. I called on him fresh from a study 
of the book. He had just read it, with four or five other 
works, on that day. At tea we began to discuss the work, 
A third party disputed his recollection of certain points, 
whereupon Spurgeon quoted a page, to show that the 



INTR OD UCTOR Y. 5 

natural and spiritual laws were declared to be "identical," 
and another important page to show how the book erred by 
defect. I looked over the page again, on my return home, 
and I believe he scarcely missed a word in his repetition. 
His power of reading was one of the greatest of his many 
talents. 

In the vastness of his knowledge Mr. Spurgeon had no 
equal except Mr. Gladstone, who has all the world's litera- 
ture open to him. Mr. Spurgeon was limited to the wide 
field of English. With Mr, Gladstone more than with Mr. 
Spurgeon I have always felt the depths of my own ignorance. 
In discussing subjects which were specially my own with 
Mr. Gladstone, I have always felt that he knew my subject 
better than I did. I once told him of Spurgeon's power of 
rapid and thorough reading, believing that he possessed the 
same gift ; but he assured me he read slowly, but that he 
u^ed up all the odds and ends of time at his disposal to 
keep abreast of the age. 

These two men greatly esteemed and honored each other. 
This is known from their last correspondence ; but I knew it 
as a fact from each ; and when Mr. Spurgeon dissented from 
Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy, through fear of the priests, he 
added one day, after condemning Home Rule, "Yes, but I 
will back William Ewart Gladstone against the world to 
carry the bill. The purity of his purpose and simplicity of 
his motives will do it." 

I was at first surprised to find Mr. Spurgeon consulting 
both the Hebrew and Greek texts. "They say," said he, 
"that I am ignorant and unlearned. Well, let them say, and 
in everything, by my ignorance and by my learning, let God 
be glorified." 

His exegesis was never wrong. He spared no pains to be 
sure of the exact meaning of his subject. He was going to 



6 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

preach on the ohve-tree, and he sent his secretary to the 
keeper of the natural-history department of the British 
Museum with a series of questions as to the pecuHarities of 
the tree. 

The keeper was so much interested in the inquiry that he 
wrote out several pages for Mr. Spurgcon; but when the 
sermon came to be preached, the information had been 
passed through the crucible of Mr. Spurgeon's mind, and 
came forth in one fine Bunyanesque sentence. 

Mr. Spurgeon held that the lies that were told about his 
vulgarity were overruled to the furtherance of the gospel. 
People read in some of the London revilers how he slid 
down the pulpit-rail to illustrate the descent of the wicked 
into hell, and they went to see the dissenting mountebank, 
and very often they remained to pray and work ; for Spur- 
geon's converts bowed to the yoke. 

I once asked him if he had really coined the phrase 
"Resist the Devil," and he will flee from you ; resist a 
deacon, and he will fly at you." "No," said he, "I never 
had the wit to invent it, nor the experience to justify my 
repeating it. Besides," he added, "the saying, like most of 
the vulgarities fathered on me, is older than my grandfather." 

Mr. Spurgeon was sometimes subject to great depression, 
but nothing weighed him down so heavily as the thought 
that his orphans might be left destitute. On his return once 
from Mentone, he met his deacons to see how it fared with 
the orphans. "You must work another miracle, governor," 
said one of the deacons; "for we have now only a balance 
of ;^5o." "Let us ask God for the money that we want," 
replied Mr. Spurgeon. They knelt round the table and 
prayed. "Now," said Mr. Spurgeon, when they had again 
resumed their seats, "let us see what we can do ourselves." 
He drew a piece of paper to him and wrote down ;^5o on it, 



INTR OD UCTOR Y. 7 

and passed the paper to his nearest neighbor. When it had 
gone round the table it contained promises for ^500. 

"I went home that night," said Mr. Spurgeon, "as if my 
heart would break." As he was crossing the hall wearily to 
his study, he heard an altercation going on at the door. He 
heard his man saying, "No one can see the master to-night," 
and then he heard a gentleman's voice remonstrating 
warmly. "What is the matter there?" said Mr. Spurg^eon. 
"O, Mr. Spurgeon!" replied the gentleman at the door, "I 
have come a long way to see you. I promised, when in 
India, to give seven hundred pounds to your orphanage, and 
I have brought you the money." The next morning, the first 
letter opened by Mr. Spurgeon contained a like amount, 
"and," said he, when telling the story, "I was once more in 
the third heaven." 

Mr. Spurgeon was a great preacher, a great administrator, 
great in his orphanage, great in his college, but he was 
nowhere so great as in his own house on a Saturday after- 
noon with a single friend. 

Westwood is one of the most charming places in a charm- 
ing neighborhood. How Mr. Spurgeon came to possess it is 
one of the romances of his life, but it is too long for this 
article. The grounds belonging to the house, some thirteen 
acres, are exceedingly picturesque. There are some twenty 
or thirty acres attached to the place besides. On Saturday 
afternoons I generally found Mr. Spurgeon down among the 
cattle, or in his extensive conservatories. He possessed 
cows and horses and pigs and dogs and sheep, and turkeys 
and fowls of all description, and ducks of every kind, and 
geese and pigeons of every variety. And he took an inter- 
est in them all, just as he did in each of his orphans. He 
talked to them and they stood and listened to him, and 
knew him, and, I believe, loved him as his orphans did. 



8 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON, 

We returned to the house through the conservatories. 
These were filled with all kinds of exotic plants and flowers, 
and Mr. Spurgeon would draw attention to the peculiarities 
of each, pointing out beautiful contrasts with human life, and 
analogies with the life to come. His fancies were as charm- 
ing as the exotics themselves. His sallies in the garden 
were sometimes inimitable. **Are you ever troubled with 
these sinless people?" he said to me one day. **We have a 
nest of them here, and the craze has got in among the 
gardeners. I called up my three gardeners on Saturday 
week, and said to them, *I have been observing you for some 
time. You come late and you go early, and, in the interval, 
you spoil my shrubs. I don't want your services any more. 
I will have my garden attended to by sinners for the 
future.' " And he added quietly, "I have now*three sinners, 
and they are doing my garden beautifully." 

From the conservatory we proceeded to tea with Mrs. 
Spurgeon, where the conversation sparkled like champagne. 
She, too, was carrying on a great work in supplying good 
books to ministers of all denominations. 

After tea, we filed into the study for prayers. There were 
generally, besides Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon and the guests, 
five or six servants. Mr. Spurgeon would read a chapter, 
with a running commentary of striking originality, and then 
pray with great earnestness and power. 

After prayers, the servants and the guests from a distance 
departed, and then Mr. Spurgeon was at his best. His fun, 
his stories, his criticisms, his adventures, his projects, made 
the time pass rapidly. He talked of poetry, philosophy, 
theology, politics, social schemes, war, peace — everything of 
human interest shown in the light of his genius. 

When at last I rose to go, about nine o'clock, he used to 
grow sad and heavy ; and he would say, **I must now get 



INTRODUCTORY. 

some crumbs for my chickens." Seldom, when I left him on 
Saturday night, did he know either of his texts for Sunday. 
But he had a well-stored mind, and when he saw his lines of 
thought, a few catch-words on a sheet of note-paper sufficed. 
On parting, he offered up a short prayer which was an 
inspiration to both. 

Mr. Spurgeon had a marvelous combination of qualities 
which contributed to his greatness. 

A voice that you heard with pleasure, and could not help 
hearing. 

A mind that absorbed all knowledge, whether from books 
or nature, that came within its range. 

An eye that took in a wide angle, and saw everything 
within view. 

A memory that he treated with confidence, and that never 
disappointed him. 

A great, large heart, on fire with the love of God and the 
love of souls. 

A practical common sense in doing things either sacred or 
secular. He would have been prime minister had he not 
been the pastor of the Tabernacle. 

A singleness of aim, and a transparent honesty that made 
him trusted by everybody. 

A lovableness that made you love him, if you came within 
its spell. 

"You seem very proud of Mr. Spurgeon," I said, one day 
to a deacon at the Tabernacle. 

*'We would all die for Mr. Spurgeon," was his reply. 

But the chief secret of Mr. Spurgeon's power was faith 
in the living, and in the power of the gospel. "After my 
service last night," said he to me one day, "I went to see 
two of my dear people. The wife was dying of consumption, 
the husband of typhoid fever. They had neither doubt nor 



10 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

fear, and were as happy as on their wedding day." With a 
tear in his voice he added : "I preach Hke a hon when I see 
my people die so." They prate of his narrowness who never 
knew his faith. His was the narrowness of the arrow that 
flew straight to the mark. 

Woolsthorpe^ London^ England, 



SELECTIONS. 



PAGE. 

1. John Ploughman's Pictures, - - . _ 13 

2. John Ploughman's Talk, 65 

3. Illustrations and Meditations, - - - 85 

4. The Clew of the Maze, 100 

5. Sermon Extracts, --..__ u^ 

6. Cheque Book, 129 

7. Saltcellars, - - - 144 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



13 



IF THE CAP FITS, WEAR IT. 

Friendly Readers : Last time I made a book 
I trod on some people's corns and bunions, and they 
wrote me angry letters, asking, "Did you mean 
me!" This time, to save them the expense of a 
halfpenny card, I will begin my book by saying. 




Whether I please or whether I tease, 

I'll give you my honest mind ; 
If the cap should fit, pray wear it a bit ; 

If not you can leave it behind. 

No offence is meant; but if anything in these 



14 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

pages should come home to a man, let him not send 
it next door, but get a coop for his own chickens. 
What is the use of reading or hearing for other 
people? We do not eat and drink for them; why 
should we lend them our ears and not our mouths? 
Please then, good friend, if you find a hoe on these 
premises, weed your own garden with it. 

I was speaking with Will Shepherd the other 
day about our master's old donkey, and I said, 
**He is so old and stubborn, he really is not worth 
his keep." ^*No," said Will, *^ and worse still, he 
is so vicious, that I feel sure he'll do somebody a 
mischief one of these days." You know they say 
that walls have ears; we were talking rather loud, 
but we did not know that there were ears to hay- 
stacks. We stared, I tell you, when we saw Joe 
Scroggs come from behind the stack, looking red 
as a turkey-cock, and raving like mad. He burst 
out swearing at Will and me, like a cat spitting at a 
dog. His monkey was up and no mistake. He'd let 
us know that he was as good a man as either of us, 
or the two put together, for the matter of that. Talk 
about him in that way ; he'd do — I don't know what. 
I told old Joe we never thought of him, nor said a 
word about him, and he might just as well save his 
breath to cool his porridge, for nobody meant him 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 15 

any harm. This only made him call me a liar, 
and roar the louder. My friend, Will, was walking 
away, holding his sides, but when he saw that 
Scroggs was still in a fume, he laughed outright, 
and turned round on him and said, ** Why, Joe, we 
were talking about master's old donkey, and not 
about you ; but, upon my word, I shall never see 
that donkey again without thinking of Joe Scroggs." 
Joe puffed and blowed, but perhaps he thought it 
an awkward job, for he backed out of it, and Will 
and I went off to our work in rather a^ merry cue, 
for old Joe had blundered on the truth about himself 
for once in his life. 

The aforesaid Will Shepherd has sometimes come 
down rather heavy upon me in his remarks, but it 
has done me good. It is partly through his home 
thrusts that I have come to write this new book, for 
he thought I was idle ; perhaps I am, and perhaps 
I am not. Will forgets that I have other fish to fry 
and tails to butter; and he does not recollect that a 
ploughman's mind wants to lie fallow a little, and 
can't give a crop every year. It is hard to make 
rope when your hemp is all used up, or pancakes 
without batter, or rook pie without the birds ; and 
so I found it hard to write more when I had said 
just about all I knew. 



i6 



WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 



BURN A CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS, AND 
IT WILL SOON BE GONE. 

He came in to old Alderman Greedy's money for 
he was his nephew; but, as the old saying is, the 
fork followed the rake, the spender was heir to the 




hoarder. God has been very merciful to some of 
us in never letting money come rolling in upon us, 
for most men are carried off their legs if they meet 
v/ith a great wave of fortune. Many of us would 
have been bigger sinners if we had been trusted 



JOHiV PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. i7 

with larger purses. Poor Jack had plenty of pence, 
but little sense. Money is easier made than made 
use of. What is hard to gather is easy to scatter. 
The old gentleman had lined his nest well, but 
Jack made the feathers fly like flakes of snow^ in 
winter time. He got rid of his money by shovelfuls 
and then by cartloads. After spending the interest 
he began swallowing the capital, and so killed the 
goose that laid the golden eggs. He squandered 
his silver and gold in ways which must never be 
told. It would not go fast enough, and so he bought 
race-horses to run away with it. He got into the 
hands of blacklegs, and fell into company of which 
we shall say but little ; only when such madams 
smile, men's purses weep; these are a well without a 
bottom, and the more a fool throws in, the more he 
may. The greatest beauty often causes the great- 
est ruin. Play, women and wine are enough to 
make a prince a pauper. 

Always taking out and never putting back soon 
empties the biggest sack, and so Jack found it; 
but he took no notice till his last shilling bade him 
good-by, and then he said he had been robbed; 
like silly Tom who put his finger in the fire anu 
said it was his bad luck. 



i8 



WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON 



IT TS HARD FOR AN EMPTY SACK TO 

STAND UPRIGHT. ' 

Sam may try a fine while befor"- he will make 



one of his empty sacks stand upright. 



he Were 



not half daft he would have left off that job before 




.he began it, and not have been an Irishman either. 

Pie will come to his wit's end before he sets the 
sack on its end. The old proverb, printed at the 
top, was made by a man who had burned his 
fingers with debtors, and it just means that when 



^OHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. ly 

folks have no money and are over head and ears 
in debt, as often .s not they leave off being upright, 
and tumble ove"" one way or another. He that has 
but four and s^^ends five will soon need no purse, 
but he w"' most likely begin to use his wits to keep 
himself afloat, and take to all sorts of dodges to 
manage it. 

Nine times out of ten they begin by making 
promises to pay on a certa'n day when it is certain 
they have nothing to pay with. They are as bold 
at fixing the time as if they had my lord's income. 
The day comes round as sure as Christmas, and 
then they haven't a penny-piece in the world, and 
so they make all sorts of excuses and begin to 
promise again. Those w^ho are quick to promise 
are generally slow to perform. They promise 
mountains and perform -'molehills. He who gives 
you fair words and nothing more feeds you with an 
empty spoon, and hungry creditors soon grow tired 
of that game. Promises don't fill the belly. 
Promising men are not great favorites if they are 
not performing men. When such a fellow is called 
a liar he thinks he is hardly done by ; and yet he 
is so, as sure as eggs are eggs, and there's no 
denying it, as the boy said when the gardener 
caught him up the cherry tree. 



WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 



A HANDSAW IS A GOOD THING, BUT 
NOT TO SHAVE WITH. 

Our friend will cut more than he will eat. and 
shave off something more than hair, and then he will 
blame the saw. His brains don't lie in his beard, 




nor yet in the skull above it, or he would see that 
his saw will only make sores. There's sense in 
choosing your tools, for a pig's tail will never 
make a good arrow, nor will his ear make a silk 
purse. You can't catch rabbits with drums, nor 



JOHN- PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 2t; 

pigeons with plums. A good thing is not good out 

of its place. It is much the same with lads and 

girls; you can't put all boys to one trade, nor send 

all girls to the same service. One chap will make 

a London clerk, and another will do better to 

plough and sow and reap and mow and be a 

farmer's boy. It's no use forcing them; a snail 

will never run a race, nor a mouse drive a wagon. 

"Send a boy to the well against his will, 
The pitcher will break and the water spill." 

With unwilling hounds it is hard to hunt hares. 
To go against nature and inclination is to row 
against wind and tide. They say you may praise 
a fool till you make him useful : I don't know so 
much about that, but I do know that if I get a bad 
knife I generally cut my finger, and a blunt axe is 
more trouble than profit. No, let me shave with a 
razor if I shave at all, and do my ^'^ork with the 
best tools I can get. 

Never set a man to work he is not fit for, for he 
will never do it well. They say that if pigs fly 
they always go with their tails forward, and awk- 
ward workmen are much the same. Nobody 
expects cows to catch crows, or hens to wear hats. 
There's reason in roasting eggs, and there should 
be reason in choosing servants. 



22 PVI7^ AiVD WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

HUNCHBACK SEES NOT HIS OWN HUMP, 
BUT HE SEES HIS NEIGHBOR'S. 

He points at the man in front of him, but he is a 
good deal more of a guy himself. He should not 
laugh at the crooked until he is straight himself, 




and not then. I hate to hear a raven croak at a 
crow for being black. A blind man should not 
blame his brother for squinting, and he who has 
lost his legs should not sneer at the lame. Yet so 



johjV flougitma.y's pictures. 23 

it is, the rottenest bough cracks first, and he who 
should be the last to speak is the first to rail. Be- 
spattered hogs bespatter others, and he who is full 
of fault finds fault. They are most apt to speak 
ill of others who do most ill themselv^. 

"We're very keen our neigbor's hump to see, 
We're blind to that upon our back alone; 
E'en though the lump far greater be, 
It still remains to us unknown." 

It does US much hurt to judge our neighbors, 

because it flatters our conceit, and our pride grows 

quite fast enough without feeding. We accuse 

others to excuse ourselves. We are such fools as 

to dream that we are better because others are 

worse, and we talk as if we could get up 

by pulling others down. What is the good of 

spying holes in people's coats when we can't mend 

them? Talk of my debts if you mean to pay them ; 

if not, keep your red rag behind your ivory ridge. 

A friend's faults should not be advertised, and even 

a stranger's should not be published. He who 

brays at an ass is an ass himself, and he who 

makes a fool of another is a fool himself. Don't 

get into the habit of laughing at people, for the old 

saying is, '^Hanging's stretching and mocking's 

catching." 

Some must have their joke whoever they poke ; 
For the sake of fun mischief is done. 
And to air their wit full many they hit. 



24 IVIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

DRUNKARDS, READ THIS! 



EXPELS REASON, 

DISTEMPERS THE BODY, 

DIMINISHES STRENGTH, 

INFLAMES THE BLOOD, 

f INTERNAL 1 

! EXTERNAL | 

CAUSES^ ETERNAL 1^ WOUNDS ; 

[INCURABLE J 

IS 

A WITCH TO THE SENSES, 

A DEMON TO THE SOUL, 

A THIEF TO THE PURSE, 

A GUIDE TO BEGGARY, LECHERY AND VILLIANY. 

IT IS 

THE WIFE'S WOE and 
THE CHILDREN'S SORROW. 

MAKES A MAN 

WALLOW WORSE THAN A BEAST and 
ACT LIKE A FOOL. 



HE IS 

A SELF-MURDERER 
WHO DRINKS TO ANOTHER'S GOOD HEALTH 

AND 

ROBS HIMSELF OF HIS OWN. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES 



25 



HE HAS A HOLE UNDER HIS NOSE, 

AND HIS MONEY RUNS INTO YV . 

This is the man who is always dry, because he 

takes so much heavy wet. He is a loose fellow 

who is fond of getting tight. He is no sooner up 




^han his nose is in the cup, and his money begins 
to run down the hole which is just under his nose. 
He is not a blacksmith, but he has a spark in his 
throat, and all the publican's barrels can't put it 
out. If a pot of beer is a yard of land, he must 



26 JVTT AND WISDOM OF SPUR G EON, 

have swallowed more acres than a ploughman 

could get over for many a day, and still he goes on 

swallowing until he takes to wallowing. All goes 

down Gutter Lane. Like the snipe, he lives by 

suction. If you ask him how he is, he says he would 

be quite right if he could rnoisten his mouth. His 

'purse is a bottle, his bank is the publican's till and 

his casket is a cask; pewter is his precious metal, 

and his pearl^ is a mixture of gin and beer. The 

dew of his youth comes from Ben Nevis, and the 

comfort of his soul is cordial gin. He is a walking 

barrel, a living drain-pipe, a moving swill-tub. 

They say "loath to drmk and loath to leave off," 

but he never needs persuading to begin, and as to 

ending — that is out of the question while he can 

borrow twopence. This is the gentleman who 

sings : 

He that buys land buys many stones, 
He that buys meat buys many bones, 
He that buys eggs buys many shells. 
He that buys good ale buys nothing else. 

He will never be hanged for leaving his drink 

behind him. He drinks in season and out of 

season: in summer because ne is hot, and in 

winter because he is cold, 

*Purl. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



27 



SCANT FEEDING OF MAN OR HORSE 
IS SMALL PROFIT AND SURE LOSS. 

What is saved out of food of cattle is a dead 
loss, for a horse can't work if he is not fed. If an 
animal won't pay for keeping he won't pay for 




starving. Even the land yields little if not nour- 
ished, and it is just the same with the poor beast. 
You might as well try to run a steam engine with- 
out coals, or drive a water mill without water, as 
a horse without putting corn into him. Thomas 



28 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

Tusser, who wrote a book upon "Husbandry" in 

the olden time, said, 

"Who starveth his cattle, and wearieth them out 
By carting and ploughing, his gain I much doubt ; 
But he that in labor doth use them aright 
Has gain to his comfort and cattle in plight. 

Poor dumb animals cannot speak for themselves. 

and therefore every one who has his speech should 

olead for them. To keep them short of victuals is 

a crying shame. The one in our picture seems to 

be thoroughly broken in : look at his knees ! His 

owner ought to be flogged at the cai^ tail. I hate 

cruelty, and above all things the cruelty which 

starves the laboring beast. 

A right good man is good to all, 
And stints not stable, rack or stall ; 
Not only cares for horse and hog, 
But kindly thinks of cat and dog. 

Is not a man better than a beast? Then, depend 

upon it, what is good for the ploughing horse is 

good for the ploughing boy. A bellyful of plain 

food is a wonderful help to a laboring man. A 

starving workman is a dear servant. If you don't 

pay your men, they pay themselves, or else they 

shirk their work. He who labors well should be 

fed well, especially a ploughman. 

"Let such have enow 
That follow the plough." 



JOHN PLO L'GHA/A A' ' S PIC T URES. 



29 



A LOOKING-GLASS IS OF NO USE TO A 

BLIND MAN. 

He who will not see is much the same as if he 
had no eyes; indeed, in some things, the man 
without eyes has the advantage, for he is in the 




dark and knows it, A lantern is of no use to a bat, 
and good teaching is lost on the man who will not 
learn. Reason is folly with the unreasonable. 
One man can lead a horse to the water, but a hun- 
dred cannot make him drink: it is easy work to 



30 IVir AND IVISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

tell a man the truth, but if he will not be convinced 
your labor is lost. We pity the poor blind, we 
cannot do so much as that for those who shut their 
eyes against the light. 

A man who is b]»ind to his own faults is blind to 
his own interests. He who thinks that he never 
was a fool is a fool now. ' He who never owns that 
he is wrong will never get right. He'll mend, as 
the saying is, when he grows better, like sour beer 
in summer. Flow can a man take the smuts off 
his face, if he will not look in the glass, nor 
believe that they are there when he is told of them? 

Prejudice shuts up many eyes in total darkness. 
The man knows already: he is positive and can 
swear to it, and it's no use your arguing. He has 
made up his mind, and it did not take him long, for 
there's very little of it, but when he has said a thing 
he sticks to it like cobbler's wax. He is wiser than 
seven men that can render a reason. He is as 
positive as if he had been on the other side the' 
curtain and looked into the back 3^ard of the uni- 
verse. He talks as if he carried all knowledge in 
his waiscoat pocket, like a peppermint lozenge. 
Those who like may try to teach him, but I don't 
care to hold up a mirror to a mole. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



31 



DON'T CUT OFF YOUR NOSE TO SPITE 
YOUR FACE. 

Anger is a short madness. The less, we do 
when we go mad the better for everybody, and the 
less we go mad the better for ourselves. He is far 




gone who hurts himself to wreak his vengeance on 
others. The old saying is, ^ 'Don't cut off your 
head because it aches," and another says, '*Set 
not your house on iire to spite th'.:; moon." If 
things go awry, it is a poor way of mending to 



32 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

make them worse, as the man did who took to 
drinking because he could not marry the girl he 
liked. He must be a fool who cuts off his nose to 
spite his face, and yet this is what Dick did when 
he had vexed his old master, and because he was 
chid must needs give up his place, throw himself 
out of work, and starve his wdfe and family. Jane 
had been idle, and she knew it, but sooner than let 
her mistress speak to her, she gave warning, and 
lost as good a service as a maid could wish for. 
Old Griggs was wrong, and could not deny it, and 
yet because the parson's sermon fitted him rather 
close, he took the sulks, and vowed he would never 
hear the good man again. It was his own loss, 
but he wouldn't listen to reason, but was as wilful 
as a pig. 

Do nothing when you are out of temper, and 
then 3^ou will have the less to undo. Let a hast}^ 
man's passion be a warning to 3^ou ; if he scalds 
you, take heed that you do not let your own pot 
boil over. Many a man has given himself a box 
on the ear in his blind rage, ay, and ended his 
own life out of spite. He who cannot curb his 
temper carries gunpowder in his bosom, and he is 
neither safe for himself nor his neighbors. When 
passion comes in at the door, what little sense there 
is indoors flies out at the window, 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



33 



NEVER STOP THE PLOUGH TO CATCH 
A MOUSE. 

There's not much profit in this game. Think 
of a man and a boy and four horses all standing 
still for the sake of a mouse I What would old 




.i\ 






friend Tusser say to that? I think he would 

rhyme in this fashion : 

A ploughman deserveth a cut of the whip 
If for idle pretence he let the hours sHp. 

Heaps of people act like the man in our picture. 

They have a great work in hand which wants all 



34 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. ■ 

their wits, and they leave it to squabble over some 

pretty nothing, not worth a fig, Old master Tom 

would say to them. 

No more tittle tattle, go on with your cattle. 

He could not bear for a farmer to let his horses out 

for carting even, because it took their work away 

from the farm, and so I am sure he would be in a 

great stew if he saw farmers wasting their time at 

matches and hunts and the like. He says: 

"Who slacketh his tillage a carter to be, 
For groat got abroad, at home shall lose three; 
For sure by so doing he brings out^of heart, 
Both land for the corn and horse for the cart." 

The main chance must be minded, and the little 
things must be borne with. Nobody would burn 
his house down to kill the black beetles, and it 
would never answer to kill the bullocks to feed the 
cats. If our baker left off making bread for a 
week while he cracked the cockroaches, what 
should we all do for breakfast? If the butcher 
sold no more meat till he had killed all the blow- 
flies, we should be many a day without mutton. 
If the water companies never gave the Londoners 
a drink till they had fished every gudgeon out of 
the Thames, how would the old ladies make their 
tea? There's no use in stopping your fishing 
because of the s^eaweed^ nor your riding because 
of the dust. 



JOHN' PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



EVERY MAN SHOULD SWEEP BEFORE 
HIS OWN DOOR. 

He is a wise man who has wit enough for his 
own affairs. It is a common thing for people to 
mind Number One, but not so common to see 




people mend it. When it comes to spending 
money on labor or improvements, they think that 
repairs should begin at Number 2, and Number 3, 
and go on till all the houses up to Number 50 are 
touched up before any hint should be given to 



36 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

Number One. Now, this is very stupid, for if 
charity should begin at home, certainly reforma- 
tion should begin there too. It is a waste of time 
to go far away to make a clearance ; there's noth- 
ing like sweeping the snow from your own door. 
Let every dog carry his own tail. Mind your own 
business, and mend , your own manners, and if 
every man does the same all will be minded and 
mended, as the old song says: 

"Should every man defend his house, 

Then all would be defended ; 
If every man would mend a man, 

Then all mankind were mended." 

A man who does not look well to his own concerns 
is not fit to be trusted with other people's. Lots of 
folks are so busy abroad that they have no time to 
look at home. They say the cobbler's wife goes 
barefoot, and the baker's child gets no buns, and 
the sweep's house has sooty chimneys. This 
comes of a man thinking he is everybody except 
himself. All the wit in the world is not in one head, 
and therefore the wisest man living is not bound 
to look after all his neighbors' matters. There 
are wonderful people about, whose wisdom would 
beat Solomon into fits ; and yet they have not sense 
enough to keep their own kettle from boiling over. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



37 



YOU MAY BEND THE SAPLING, BUT 
NOT THE TREE. 

Ladder and pole and cord will be of no use to 
straighten the bent tree ; it should have been 
looked after much earlier. Train trees when they 




are saplings, and young lads before ihe down 
comes on their chins. If you want a bullfinch to 
pipe, whistle to him while he is young; he will 
scarcely catch the tune after he has learned the 
wild bird's note. Begin early to teach, for children 



38 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

begin early to sin. Catch them young and you 

may hope to keep them. 

Ere your boy has reached to seven, 
Teach him well the way to heaven ; 
Better still the work will thrive 
If he learns before he's five. 

What is learned young is learned for life. What 
we hear at the first we remember to the last. The 
bent twig grows up a crooked tree. Horse- 
breakers say, 

"The tricks a colt getteth at his first backing, 
Will whilst he continueth never be lacking." 

W^hen a boy is rebellious, conquer him, and do it 

well the first time, that there may be no need to do 

it again. A child's first lesson should be obedience, 

and after that you may teach it what you please, 

yet the young mind must not be laced too tight, or 

you may hurt its growth and hinder its strength. 

They say a daft nurse makes a wise child, but I 

do not believe it; nobody needs so much common 

sense as a mother or a governess. It does not do 

to be always thwarting ; and yet remember, if you 

give a child his will and a whelp his fill, both will 

surely turn out ill. A child's back must be made 

to bend, but it must not be broken. He must be 

ruled, but not with a rod of iron. His spirit must 

be conguered, but not crushed. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



39 



*'GREAT CRY AND LITTLE WOOL/' AS 

THE MAN SAID WHO CLIPPED 

THE SOW. 

Now, is not this very like the world with its 
notions of pleasure? There is noise enough: 
laughter and shouting and boasting; but where is 




the comfort which can warm the heart and give 
peace to the spirit? Generally there's plenty of 
smoke and very little fire in what is called pleasure. 
It promises a nag and gives an ^g^. Gayety is a 



40 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

sort of flash in the pan, a fifth of November squib, 
all fizz and bang and done for. The devil's meal 
is all bran, and the world's wine turns to vinegar. 
It is always making a great noise over nutshells. 
Thousands have had to weep over their blunder in 
looking for their heaven on earth; but they follow 
each other like sheep through a gap, not a bit the 
wiser for the experience of generations. It seems 
that every man must have a clip at his own partic- 
ular pig, and cannot be made to believe that like 
all the rest it will yield him nothing but bristles. 
Men are not all of one mind as to what is best for 
them; they no more agree than the clocks in our 
village, but they all hang together in following 
after vanity, for to the core of their hearts they are 
vain. One shears the publican's hog, which is so fond 
of the swill-tub, and he reckons upon bringing 
home a ^vonderful lot of wool ; but everybody 
knows that he who goes to the "Woolpack" for 
wool will come home shorn: the *'Blue Boar" is an 
uncommonly ugly animal to shear, and so is the 
"Red Lion." Better shear off as fast as you can; 
it will be sheer folly to stop. You may loaf about 
the tap of the ''Halfmoon" till you get the full moon 
in your noddle, and need a keeper : it is the place 
for men whose wits go wool-gathering, but wool 
there is none. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES, 



41 



A MAN MAY LOVE HIS HOUSE, THOUGH 
HE RIDE NOT ON THE RIDGE. 

You can love your house and not ride on the 
ridge; there's a medium in everything. You can 
be fond of your wife without being her drudge, and 




you can love your children dearly, and yet not 
give them their own way in everything Some 
men are of so strange a kidney that they set no 
bounds to their nonsense. If they are fond of roast 
beef they must needs suck the spit; they cannot 



42 WIT AND WTSDOM OF SPURGEON. 

rest with eating the pudding, they must swallow 

the bag. If they dislike a thing, the very smell of 

it sets them grumbling, and if they like it they 

must have it everywhere and always, for nothing 

else is half so sweet. When they do go in for eating 

rabbits, they have 

Rabbits young and rabbits old. 
Rabbits hot and rabbits cold, 
Rabbits tender, rabbits tough : 
Never can they have enough. 

Whatever they take up takes them up, and for a 
season they cannot seize on anything else. At 
election times the barber cannot trim his customer's 
poll because of the polling, and the draper cannot 
serve you with calico because he is canvassing. 
The nation would go to the dogs altogether if the 
cat's-meat man did not secure the election by stick- 
ing his mark on the ballot paper. It is^upposed 
that the globe would leave off turning round if our 
Joe Scroggs did not go down to the "Dun Cow," 
and read the paper, and have his say upon politics, 
in the presence of the House of Commons assem- 
bled in the tap-room. I do not quite think so, but 
I know this, that when the Whigs and the Tories 
and the Radicals are about, Scroggs is good for 
nothing all day long. What party he belongs to I 
don't know, but I believe his leading principle will 
be seen in the following verse : 

If gentlemen propose a glass, 

He never says them nay ; 
For he always thinks it right to drink 

While other people pay. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 43 

GREAT DRINKERS THINK THEMSELVES 
GREAT MEN. 

Wonderful men and white rats are not so 
scarce as most people think. Folks may talk as 
they like about Mr. Gladstone, Lord Beaconsfield, 




and that sharp gentleman Bismarck, but Jack, and 
Tom, and Harry, and scores more tbat I know of, 
could manage their business for them a fine sight 
better; at least, they think so, and are quite ready 
to try. Great men are as plentiful as mice in an 



44 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

old wheat stack down our way. Every parish has 
one or two wonderful men; indeed, most public- 
houses could show one at least, and generally two ; 
and I have heard that on Saturday nights, when 
our **Blue Dragon" is full, there may be seen as 
many as twenty of the greatest men in all the world 
in the tap-room, all making themselves greater by 
the help of pots of beer. When the jug has been 
filled and emptied a good many times, the blacksmith 
feels he ought to be prime minister ; Styles, the 
carter, sees the way to take off the taxes, and old 
Hobbs, the rat-catcher, roars out, 

"They're all a pack of fools, 
And good-for-nothing tools ; 
If they'd only send for me, 
You'd see how things would be." 

If you have a fancy to listen to these great men when 
they are talking you need not go into the bar, for you 
can hear them outside the house; they generally 
speak four or five at a time, and every one in a 
Mitcham whisper, which is very like a shout. 
What a fine flow of words they have! There's no 
end to it, and it's a pity there was ever any begin- 
ning, for there's generally a mix up of foul talk 
with their politics, and this sets them all roaring 
with laughter. A few evenings in such company 
would poison 'the mind of the best lad in the parish. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



45 



TWO DOGS FIGHT FOR A BONE, AND A 
THIRD RUNS AWAY WITH IT. 

We have heard of the two men who quarrelled 
over an oyster, and called in a judge to settle the 
question ; he ate the oysters himself, and gave them 




a shell each. This reminds me of the story of the 
cow which two farmers could not agree about, and 
so the lawyers stepped in and milked the cow for 
them, and charged them for their trouble in drink- 
ing the milk. Little is got by law, but much is 



46 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

lost by it. A suit in law may last longer than any 
suit a tailor can make you, and you may yourself 
be worn out before it comes to an end. It is better 
far to make matters up and keep out of court, for 
if you are caught there you are caught in the bram- 
bles, and won't get out without damage. John 
Ploughman feels a cold sweat at the thought of 
getting into the hands of lawyers. He does not 
mind going to Jericho, but he dreads the gentlemen 
on the road, for they seldom leave a feather upon 
any goose which they pick up. 

However, if men will fight they must not blame 
the lawyers ; if law were cheaper quarrelsome peo- 
ple would have more of it, and quite as much 
would be spent in the long run. Sometimes, how- 
ever, we get dragged into court willy nilly, and 
then one had need be wise as a serpent and harm- 
less as a dove. Happy is he who finds an honest 
lawyer, and does not try to be his own client. A 
good lawyer always tries to keep people out of law; 
but some clients are like moths with the candle, 
they must and will burn themselves. He who is so 
wise that he cannot be taught will have to pay for 
his pride. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES, 



47 



STICK TO IT AND DO IT. 

Set a stout heart to a stiff hill, and the wagon 
will get to the top of it. There's nothing so hard 
but a harder thing will get through it; a strong job 
can be managed by a strong resolution. Have at 




it and have it. Stick to it and succeed. Till a 
thing is done men wonder that you think it can be 
done, and when you have done it they wonder it 
was never done before. 

In my picture the wagon is drawn by two horses ; 



48 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

but I would have every man who wants to make 
his way in life pull as if all depended on himself. 
Very little is done right when it is left to other 
people. The more hands to do work the less there 
is done. One man will carry two pails of water for 
himself; two men will only carry one pail between 
them, and three will come home with never a drop 
at all. A child with several mothers will die before 
it runs alone. Know your business and give your 
mind to it, and you will find a buttered loaf where 
a sluggard loses his last crust. 

In these times it's no use being a farmer if you 
don't mean work. The days are gone by for gen- 
tlemen to make a fortune off of a farm by going 
out shooting half their time. If foreign wheats 
keep on coming in, farmers will soon learn that 

*' He who by the plough would thrive, 
Himself must either hold or drive." 

He is a sorry dog who wants game and will not 
hunt for it: let us never lie down in idle despair, but 
follow on till we succeed. 

Rome was not built in a day, nor much else, 
unless it be a dog kennel. Things which cost no 
pains are slender gains. Where there has been 
little sweat there will be little sweet. Jonah's gourd 
came up in a night, but then it perished in a night. 



JOHN PLOUGHHAN'S PICTURES. 



49 



AN OLD FOX IS SHY OF A TRAP. 

The old fox knows the trap of old. You don't 
catch him so easily as you would a cub. He looks 
sharp at the sharp teeth, and seems to say, 




'* Hollo, my old chap, 
I spy out your trap. 
To-day, will you fetch me? 
Or wait till you catch me ?" 

The cat asked the mice to supper, but only the 

young ones would come to the feast, and they never 

went home again. '' Will you walk into my parlor?" 



50 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

said the spider to the fly, and the silly creature did 
walk in, and was soon dead as a door-nail. 

What a many traps have been set for some of us. 
Man-traps and woman-traps ; traps to catch us by 
the eye, by the ear, by the throat, and by the nose; 
traps for the head and traps for the heart; day 
traps, and night traps, and traps for any time you 
like. The baits are of all sorts, alive and dead, 
male and female, common and particular. We 
had need be wiser than foxes, or we shall soon 
hear the snap of the man-trap and feel its teeth. 

Beware of beginnings: he who does not take 
the first wrong step will not take the second. Be- 
ware of drops, for the fellows who drink take noth- 
ing but a *'drop of beer," or **a drop too much/' 
Drop your drop of grog. Beware of him who 
says, **Is it not a little one?" Little sins are the 
eggs of great sorrows. Beware of lips smeared 
with honey: see how many flies are caught with 
sweets. Beware of evil questions which raise 
needless doubts, and make it hard for a man to 
trust his Maker. Beware of a bad rich man who 
is very liberal to you ; he will buy you first and sell 
you afterward. Beware of a dressy young woman, 
without a mind or a heart; you may be in a net be-r 
fore you can say Jack Robinson. 

"Pretty fools are no ways rare: 
Wise men will of such beware." 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN^ S PICTURES, 



A BLACK HEN LAYS A WHITE EGG. 

The egg is white enough, though the hen is 
black as a coal. This is a very simple thing, but 
it has pleased the simple mind of John Ploughman, 
and made him cheer up when things have gone 




hard with him. Out of evil comes good, through 
the great goodness of God. From threatening 
clouds we get refreshing showers; in dark mines 
men find bright jewels, and so from our worst 
troubles come our best blessings. The bitter cold 



52 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON: 

sweetens the ground, and the rough winds fasten 
the roots of the old oaks. God sends us letters of 
love in envelopes with black borders. Many a 
time have I plucked sweet fruit from bramble 
bushes, and taken lovely roses from among prickly 
thorns. Trouble is to believing men and women 
like the sweetbrier in our hedges, and where it 
grows there is a delicious smell all around, if the 
dew do but fall upon it from above. 

Cheer up, mates, all will come right in the end. 
The darkest night will turn to a fair morning in 
due time. Only let us trust in God, and keep our 
heads above the waves of fear. When our hearts 
are right with God, everything is right. Let us 
look for the silver which lines every cloud, and 
when we do not see it let us believe that it is there. 
We are all at school, and our great Teacher writes 
many a bright lesson on the blackboard of affliction. 
Scant fare teaches us to live on heavenly bread, 
sickness bids us send off for the good Physician, 
loss of friends makes Jesus more precious, and 
even the sinking of our spirits brings us to live 
more entirely upon God. All things are working 
together for the good of those who love God, and 
even death itself will bring them their highest gain. 
Thus the black hen lays a white &gg* 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES, 



SZ^ 



HE LOOKS ONE WAY AND PULLS 
ANOTHER. 

He faces the shore, but he is pulling for the ship. 
This is the way of those who row in boats, and also 
of a great many who never trust themselves on the 




water. The boatman is all right, but the hypocrite 
is all wrong, whatever rites he may practice. I 
cannot endure Mr. Facing-both-ways, yet he has 
swarms of cousins. 

It is ill to be a saint without and a devil within, 



54 ^VIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

to be a servant of Christ before the world in order 
to serve the ends of self and the devil, while in- 
wardly the heart hates all good things. There are 
good and bad of all classes, and hypocrites can be 
found among ploughmen as well as among parsons. 
It used to be so in the olden times, for I remember 
an old verse which draws out just such a character. 
The man says: 

"I'll have a religion all of my own, 
Whether Papist or Protestant shall not be known ; 
And if it proves troublesome I will have none." 

In our Lord's day many followed him, but it was 
only for the loaves and fishes. They do say that 
some in our parish don't go quite so straight as the 
Jews did, for they go to the church for the loaves, 
and then go over to the Baptist chapel for the 
fishes- I don't want to judge, but I certainly do 
know some who, if they do not care much for faith, 
are always following after charity. 

Better die than sell your soul to the highest 
bidder. Better be shut up in the workhouse than 
fatten upon hypocrisy. Whatever else we barter, 
let us never try to turn a penny by religion, for 
hypocrisy is the meanest vice- a man can come to. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES, 



55 



FOOLS SET STOOLS FOR WISE MEN TO 
STUMBLE OVER. 

This is what they call "a lark." Fools set stools 
for wise men to stumble over. To ask questions is 
as easy as kissing your hand; to answer them is as 




hard as fattening a greyhound. Any fool can 
throw a stone into a well, and the cleverest man in 
the parish may never be able to get it up again. 
Folly grows in all countries, and fools are all the 
world over, as he said who shod the goose. Silly 



56 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

people are pleased with their own nonsense, and 

think it rare fun to quiz their betters. To catch a 

wise man tripping is as good as bowling a fellow out 

at a cricket match. 

''Folly is wise in her own eyes, 
Therefore she tries Wit to surprise." 

There are difficulties in everything except in 
eating pancakes, and nobody ought to be expected 
to untie all the knots in a net, or to make that 
straight which God has made crooked. He is the 
greatest fool of all who pretends to explain every- 
thing, and says he will not believe what he cannot 
understand. There are bones in the meat, but am 
I to go hungry till I can eat them? Must I never 
enjoy a cherry till I find one without a stone? John * 
Ploughman is not of that mind. He is under no 
call to doubt, for he is not a doctor : when people 
try to puzzle him he tells them that those who made 
the lock had better make the key, and those who 
put the cow in the pound had better get her out. 
Then they get cross, and John only says, You need 
not be crusty, for you are none too much baked. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S. PICTURES, 



57 



A MAN IN A PASSION RIDES A HORSE 
THAT RUNS AWAY WITH HIM. 

When passion has run away with a man, who 
knows where it may carry him? Once let a rider 
lose power over his horse, and he may go over 




hedge and ditch, and end in a tumble into the stone- 
quarry and a broken neck. No one can tell in cold 
blood what he may do when he gets angry; there- 
fore it is best to run no risks. Those who feel 
their temper rising will be wise if they rise them- 



58 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

selves and walk off to the pump. Let them fill 
their mouths with cold water, hold it there ten 
minutes at least, and then go indoors, and keep 
there until they feel as cool as a cucumber. If you 
carry loose gunpowder in your pocket, you had 
better not go where sparks are flying ; and if you 
are bothered with an irritable nature you should 
move off when folks begin teasing you. Better 
keep out of a quarrel than fight your way through it. 

Nothing is improved by anger, unless it be the 
arch of a cat's back. A man with his back up is 
spoiling his figure. People look none the hand- 
somer for being red in the face. It takes a great 
deal out of a man to get into a towering rage ; it is 
almost as unhealthy as having a fit, and time has 
been when men have actually choked themselves 
with passion, and died on the spot. Whatever 
wrong I suffer it cannot do me half so much hurt 
as being angry about it ; for passion shortens life 
and poisons peace. 

When once we give way to temper, temper will 
claim a right of way, and come in easier every 
time. He that will be in a pet for any little thing 
will soon be out at elbows about nothing at all. A 
thunder-storm curdles the milk, and so does a 
passion sour the heart and spoil the character. 



JOHN P-LOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



59 



SCATTER AND INCREASE. 

People will not believe it, and yet it is true as 
the gospel, that giving leads to thriving. John 
Bunyan said : 




**There was a man, and some did count him mad, 
The more he gave away the more he had." 

He had an old saying to back him, one which is as 

old as the hills, and as good as gold : 

"Give and spend 
And God will send." 



6o WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

If a man cannot pay his debts he must not think 
of giving, for he has nothing of his own, and it is 
thieving to give away other people's property. Be 
just before you are generous. Don't give to Peter 
what is due to Paul. They used to say that 
^'Give" is dead and '^Restore" is buried, but I do 
not believe it any more than I do another saying, 
^'there are only two honest men, one is dead and 
the other is not born." No, no, there are many 
free hearts yet about, and John Ploughman knows 
a goodish few of them — people who don't cry, **Go 
next door," but who say, * 'Here's a little help, and 
we wish we could make it ten times as much." 
God has often a great share in a small house, and 
many a little man has a large heart. 

Now, you will find that liberal people are happy 
people, and get more enjoyment out of what they 
have than folks of a churlish mind. Misers never 
rest till they are put to bed with a shovel ; they 
often get so wretched they would hang themselves 
only they grudge the expense of a rope. Generous 
souls are made happy by the happiness of others ; 
the money they give to the poor buys them more 
pleasure than any other that they lay out. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



6i 



HE WOULD PUT HIS FINGER IN THE 

PIE, AND SO HE BURNED 

HIS NAIL OFF. 

Some men must have a .finger in every pie, or, 
as the proverb hath it, '* their oar must be in every 
man's boat.'' They seem to have no business 




except to poke their noses into other people's busi- 
ness; they ought to have snub noses, for they are 
pretty sure to be snubbed. Prying and spying, 
peddling and meddling, these folks are in every- 



62 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

body's way, like the old toll-gate. They come 
without being sent for, stop without being asked, 
and cannot be got rid of, unless you take them by 
the left leg and throw them down stairs, and if you 
do that they will limp up again and hope they don't 
intrude. No one pays them, and yet they -give 
advice more often than any lawyer ; and though no 
one ever thanks them, yet there they are, peeping 
through keyholes and listening under the eaves. 
They are as great at asking questions as if they 
wanted you to say the catechism, and as eager to 
give their opinion as if you had gone down on your 
knees to ask it. 

These folks are like dogs that fetch and carry ; 
they run all over the place like starlings when they 
are feeding their young. They make much ado, 
but never do much, unless it is. mischief, and at this 
they are as apt as jackdaws. If any man has such 
people for his acquaintances, he may well say, 
" Save me from my friends." 

I know you assistance will lend ; 

When I want it I'll speedily send ; 

You need not be making such stir, 

But mind your own business, good sir. ^ 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES. 



63 



A LEAKING TAP IS A GREAT WASTER. 
A LEAKING tap is a great waster. Drop by 
drop, by day and by night, the liquor runs away, 
and the housewife wonders how so much can have 
gone. This is the fashion in which many laboring 




men are kept poor. They don't take care of the 
pence, and so they have no pounds to put in the 
bank. You cannot fill the rain-water butt if you 
do not catch the drops. A sixpence here and a 
shilling there, and his purse is empty before a 



64 y^J'T AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

man dares to look in it. What with waste in the 
kitchen, waste at table and waste at the public- 
house, fools and their money soon part to meet 
no more. If the wife wastes too, there are two 
holes in the' barrel. Sometimes the woman dresses 
in tawdry finery and gets in debt to the tally-man ; 
and it is still worse if she takes to the bottle. When 
the goose drinks as deep as the gander, pots are 
soon empty, and the cupboard is bare. Then they 
talk about saving, like the man who locked the 
stable door after his horse was stolen. They will 
not save at the brim, but promise themselves and 
the pigs that they will do wonders when they get 
neai' the bottom. It is well to follow the good old 

rule 

"Spend so as ye may 
Spend for many a day." 

He who eats all the loaf at breakfast may whistle 

for his dinner and get a dish of empties. If we do 

not save while we have it we certainly shall not 

save after all is gone. There is no grace in waste. 

Economy is a duty ; extravagance is a sin. The 

old Book saith, ** He that hasteth to be rich shall 

not be innocent," and, depend upon it, he that 

hasteth to be poor is in much the same box. 

Stretch your legs according to the length of your 

blanket, and never spend all that you have : 

"Put a little by; 
Things may go awry." 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 65 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK; 

OR, 

PLAIN ADVICE FOR PLAIN PEOPLE. 



TO THE IDLE. 

It is no more use to give advice to the idle than 
to pour water into a sieve ; and as to improving 
them, one might as well try to fatten a greyhound. 
Yet, as the Old Book tells us to **cast our bread 
upon the waters," we will cast a hard crust or two 
upon these stagnant ponds ; for there will be this 
comfort about it, if lazy fellows grow no better, we 
shall be none the worse for having warned them; 
for when we sow good sense the basket gets none 
the emptier. We have a stiff bit of soil to plough 
when we chide with sluggards, and the crop will 
be of the smallest; but if none but good land were 
farmed, ploughmen would be out of work, so we'll 
put the plough into the furrow. Idle men are 
common enough, and grow without planting ; but the 
quantity of wit among seven acres of them would 
never pay for raking ; nothing is needed to prove 



66 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

this but their name and their character; if they 
were not fools they would not be idlers ; and though 
Solomon says, '' The sluggard is wiser in his own 
conceit than seven men that can render a reason,'' 
yet in the eyes of every one else his folly is as 
plain as the sun in the sky. If I hit hard while 
speaking to them, it is because I know they can 
bear it; for if I had them down on the floor of the 
old barn, I might thresh many a day before I could 
get-them out of the straw, and even the steam 
thresher could not do it: it would kill them first; 
for laziness is in some people's bones, and will show 
itself in their idle flesh, do what you will with them. 

ON RELIGIOUS GRUMBLERS. 

When a man has a particularly empty head, he 
generally sets up for a great judge, especially in 
religion. None so wise as the man who knows 
nothing. His ignorance is the mother of his impu- 
dence and the nurse of his obstinacy; and though 
he does not know B from a bull's foot, he settles 
matters as if all wisdom were in his fingers' ends — 
the Pope himself is not more infallible. Hear him 
talk- after he has been at meeting and heard a 
sermon, and you will know how to pull a good man 
to pieces, if you never knew before. He sees 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 6; 

faults where there are none, and if there be a few 
things amiss, he makes every mouse into an elephant. 
Although you might put all his wit into an egg-shell, 
be weighs the sermon in the balances of his conceit, 
with all the airs of a bred-and-born Solomon, and 
if it be up to his standard, he lays on his praise with 
a trowel; but if it be not to his taste, he growls and 
barks and snaps at it like a dog at a hedgehog. 
Wise men in this world are like trees in a hedge, 
there is only here and there one; and when these 
rare men talk together upon a discourse, it is good 
for the ears to hear them ; but the bragging wise- 
acres I am speaking of are vainly puffed up by 
their fleshly minds, and their quibbling is as sense- 
less as the cackle of geese on a common. Nothing 
comes out of a sack but what was in it, and as 
their bag is empty, they shake nothing but wind out 
of it. It is very likely that neither ministers nor 
their sermons are perfect — the best garden may 
have a few weeds in it, the cleanest corn may have 
some chaff — but cavillers cavil at anything or noth- 
ing, and find fault for the sake of showing off their 
deep knowledge ; sooner than let their tongues have 
a holiday, they would complain that the grass is not 
a nice shade of blue, and say that the sky would 
have looked neater if it had been whitewashed,^ 



68 WIT AAD WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

ON THE PREACHER'S APPEARANCE. 

A GOOD horse cannot be a bad color, and a really 
good preacher can wear what he likes, and none 
will care much about it; but though you cannot 
know wine by the barrel, a good appearance is a 
letter of recommendation even to a ploughman. 
Wise men neither fall into love nor take a dislike at 
first sight, but still the first impression is always a 
great thing even with theiji ; and as to those weaker 
brethren who are not wise, a good appearance is 
half the battle. What is a good appearance? Well, 
it's not being pompous and starchy, and making 
one's self high and mighty among the people, for 
proud looks lose hearts, and gentle words win them. 
It's not wearing fine clothes either, for foppish dress 
usually means a foul house within, and the doorstep 
without fresh whitened; such dressing tells the 
world that the outside is the best part of the puppet. 
When a man is as proud as a peacock, all strut 
and show, he needs converting himself before he 
sets up to preach to others. The preacher who 
measures himself by his looking-glass may please a 
few silly girls, neither God nor man will long put 
up with him. The man who owes his greatness to 
his tailor will find that needle and thread cannot 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 69 

long hold a fool in a pulpit. A gentleman should 
have more in his pocket than on his back, a minister 
should have more in his inner man than on his outer 
man. I would say, if I might, to young ministers, 
do not preach in gloves, for cats in mittens catch no 
mice; don't curl and oil your hair like dandies, for 
nobody cares to hear a peacock's voice ; don't have 
your own pretty self in your mind at all, or nobody 
else will mind you. Away with gold rings, and 
chains, and jewelry; why should the pulpit become 
a goldsmith's shop? Forever away with surplices 
and gowns, and all those nursery doll-dresses — 
men should put away childish things. A cross on 
the back is the sign of a devil in the heart; those 
who do as Rome does, should go to Rome and 
show their colors. 

ON GOOD NATURE AND FIRMNESS. 

Do not be all sugar, or the world will suck you 
down ; but do not be all vinegar, or the world will 
spit you out. There is a medium in all things; 
only blockheads go to extremes. We need not be 
all rock or all sand, all iron or all wax. We should 
neither fawn upon everybody like silly lapdogs, nor 
fly at all persons like surly mastiffs. Blacks and 
whites go together to make up a world, and hence 



70 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

on the point of temper we have all sorts of people 
to deal with. Some are as easy as an old shoe, 
but the}^ are hardly ever worth more than the other 
one of the pair; and others take fire as fast as 
tinder at the smallest offence, and are as dangerous 
as gunpowder. To have a fellow going about the 
farm as cross with everybody as a bear with a sore 
head, with a temper as sour as verjuice and as 
sharp as a razor, looking as surly as a butcher's 
dog, is a great nuisance, and yet there may be 
some good points about the man, so that he may 
be a man for all that; but poor soft Tommy, as 
green as grass and as ready to bend as a willow, is 
nobody's money and everybody's scorn. A man 
must have a backbone, or how is he to hold his 
head up? but that backbone must bend, or he will 
knock his brow against the beam. 

ON GOSSIPS. 

*'It is nothing — only a woman drowning," is a 
wicked and spitful old saying, which, like the 
bridle, came out of the common notion that women 
do a world of mischief with their tongues. Is it 
so or not ? John Ploughman will leave somebody 
else to answer, for he owns that he cannot keep a 
secret himself, and likes a dish of chat as well as 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 7i 

anybody; only John does not care for cracking 
people's characters, and hates the slander which is 
so sweet to some people's teeth. John puts the 
question to wiser men than himself. Are women 
much worse than men in this business? They say 
that silence is a fine jewel for a woman, but it is 
very little worn. Is it so? Is it ti*ue that woman 
only conceales what she does not know? Are 
women's tongues like lambs' tails, always wag- 
ging? They say foxes are all tail, and women all 
tongue. Is this false or not? Was that old prayer 
a needful one — '*From big guns and women's 
tongues deliver us?" John has a right good and 
quiet wife of his own, whose voice is so sweet that 
he cannot hear it too often, and, therefore, he is not a 
fair judge; but he is half afraid that some other 
women would sooner preach than pray, and would 
not require strong tea to set their clappers going ; 
but still, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for 
the gander, and some men are quite as bad blabs 
as the women. 

ON SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES. 

Some men never are awake when the train starts, 
but crawl into the station just in time to see that 
everybody is off, and then sleepily say, ''Dear me, 



72 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

is the train gone? My watch must have stopped 
in the n.ight!" They alwa3^s come into town a day 
after the fair, and open their wares an hour after 
the market is over. They make their hay when the 
sun has left off shining^, and cut their corn as soon as 
the fine weather is ended. They cry "hold hard!" 
after the shot has left the gun, and lock the stable- 
door when the steed is stolen. They are like a 
cow's tail, always behind; they take time by the 
heels, and not by the forelock, if indeed they ever 
take him at all. . They are no more worth than an 
old almanac; their time has gone for being of use; 
but, unfortunately, you cannot throw them away as 
you would the almanac, for they are like the cross 
old lady who had an annuity left to her, and meant 
to take out the full value of it; they won't die, 
though they are of no use alive. Take-it-easy and 
Live-long are first cousins, they say, and the 
more's the pity. If they are immortal till their 
work is done, they will not die in a hurry, for they 
have not even begun to work yet. Shiftless people 
generally excuse their laziness by saying, "they 
are only a little behind ;" but a little too late is much 
too late, and a miss is as good as a mile. 



JO HIST PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 73 

ON KEEPING ONE'S EYES OPEN. 

To get through this world a man must look 
about him, and even sleep with one eye open; for 
there are many baits for fishes, many nets for 
birds, and many traps for men. While foxes are 
so common, we must not be geese. There is a 
very great difference in this matter among people 
of my acquaintance; many see more with one eye 
than others with two and many have fine eyes and 
cannot see a jot. All heads are not sense-boxes. 
Some are so cunning that they suspect everybody, 
and so live all their lives m miserable fear of their 
neighbors; others are so simple that every knave 
takes them in, and makes his penny of them. One 
man tries to see through a brick wall, and hurts 
his eyes ; while another finds out a hole in it, and 
sees as far as he pleases. Some work at the mouth 
of a furnace, and are never scorched, and others 
burn their hands at the fire when they only mean 
to warm them. Now, it is true that no one can 
give another experience, and we must all pick up 
wit for ourselves ; yet I shall venture to give some 
of the homely cautidns which have served my turn, 
and perhaps they may be of use to others, as they 
have been to me. 



74 ^IT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

DEBT. 

When I was a very small boy, in pinafores, and 
went to a woman's school, it so happened that I 
wanted a stick of slate-pencil, and had no money 
to buy it with. I was afraid of being scolded for 
losing my pencils so often, for I was a real careless 
little fellow, and so did not dare to ask at home j 
what then was John to do? There was a little 
shop in the place, where nuts, and tops, and cakes, 
and balls were sold by old Mrs. Dearson, and 
sometimes I had seen boys and girls get trusted 
by the old lady. I argued with myself that Christ- 
mas was coming, and that somebody or other 
would be sure to give me a penny then, and per- 
haps even a whole silver sixpence. I would, there- 
fore, go into debt for a stick of slate-pencil, and 
be sure to pay at Christmas. I did not feel easy 
about it, but still I screwed my courage up, and 
went into the shop. One farthing was the amount, 
and as I had never owed anything before, and my 
credit w^as good, the pencil was handed over by 
the kind dame, and / was in debt. It did not please 
me much, and I felt as if I had done wrong, but I 
little knew how soon I shoul'd smart for it. How 
my father came to hear of this little stroke of busi- 
ness I never knew, but some little bird or other 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 75 

whistled it to him, and he was very soon down 
upon me in right earnest. God bless him for it; 
he was a sensible man, and none of your children 
spoilers; he did not intend to bring up his 'children 
to speculate and play at what big rogues call 
financing, and therefore he knocked my getting 
into debt on the head at once, and no mistake. He 
gave me a very powerful lecture upon getting into 
debt, and how like it was to stealing, and upon the 
way in which people were ruined by it; and how 
a boy who would owe a farthing might one day 
owe a hundred pounds, and get into prison, and 
bring his family into disgrace. It was a lecture, 
indeed; I think I can hear it now, and can feel my 
ears tingling at the recollection of it. Then I was 
marched off to the shop like a deserter marched 
into barracks, crying bitterly all down the street, 
and feeling dreadfully ashamed because I thought 
everybody knew I was in debt. The farthing was 
paid, amid many solemn warnings, and the poor 
debtor was set free, like a bird let out of a cage. 
How sweet it felt to be out of debt. 

- ■ FAULTS. 

He who boasts of bemg perfect is perfect in 
folly. I have been a good deal up and down in 



76 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

the world, and I never did either see a perfect 
horse or a perfect man, and I never shall till two"* 
Sundays come together You cannot get white 
flour out of a coal sack, nor perfection out of human 
nature; he who looks for it had better look for 
sugar in the sea. The old saying is, '^Lifeless, 
faultless;" of dead men we should say nothing but 
good, but as for the living, they are all tarred more 
or less with the black brush, and half an eye can 
see it. Every head has a soft place in it, and every 
heart has its black drop. Every rose has its 
prickles, and every day its night. Even the sun 
shows spots, and the skies are darkened with 
clouds. Nobody is so wise but he has folly enough 
to stock a stall at Vanity Fair. Where I could not 
see the fool's-cap, I have nevertheless heard the bells 
jingle. As there is no sunshine without some 
shadows, so is all human good mixed up more or 
less of evil; even poor-law guardians have their 
little failings, and parish beadles are not wholly of 
heavenly nature. 

THINGS NOT WORTH TRYING. 

That is a wise old saying, " Spend not all you 
have; believe not all you hear; tell not all you 
know, and do not all you can." There is so much 



JOHN- PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 77 

work to be done that needs our hands, that it is a 
pity to waste a grain of strength. When the game 
is not worth the candle, drop it at once. It is wast- 
ing time to look for milk in a gate-post, or blood in 
a turnip, or sense in a fool. Never ask a covetous 
man for money till you have boiled a flint soft. 
Don't sue a debtor who has not a penny to bless 
himself with — you will only be throwing good 
money after bad, which is like losing your ferret 
without getting the rabbit. Never offer a looking- 
glass to a blind man ; if a man is so proud that he 
will not see his faults, he will only quarrel with you 
for pointing them out to him. It is of no use to 
hold a lantern to a mole, or to talk of heaven to a 
man who cares for nothing but his dirty money. 
There is a time for everything, and it is a silly 
thing to preach to drunken men ; it is casting pearls 
before swine; get them sober, and then talk to 
them soberly; if you lecture them while they are 
drunk, you act as if you were drunk vourself. 

MEN WHO ARE DOWN. 

No man's lot is fully known till he is dead; 
change of fortune is the lot of life. He who rides 
in the carriage may yet have to clean it. Sawyers 
change places, and he who is up aloft may have 



78 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPUKGEON. 

to take his turn in the pit. The thought that we 
may ourselves be one day under the window, 
should make us careful when we are throwing out 
dirty water. With what measure we mete, it shall 
be measured to us again, and therefore let us look 
well to our dealings with the unfortunate. 

Nothing makes me more sick of human nature 
than to see the way in which men treat others when 
they fall down the ladder of fortune: *^Down 
with him,'^ they cry, **he always was good for 
nothing." 

"Down among the dead men, down, down, down, 
Down among the dead men, there let him lie." 

Dog won't eat dog, but men will eat each other 
up like canninals, and boast of it too. There are 
thousands in this world who fly like vultures to 
feed on a tradesman or a merchant as soon as ever 
he gets into trouble. Where the carcass is thither 
will the eagles be gathered together. Instead of 
a little help, they give the sinking man a great 
deal of cruelty, and cry, ** Serves him right." x\ll 
the world will beat the man whom fortune buffets. 
If providence smites him, all men's whips begin to 
crack. The dog is drowning, and therefore all 
his friends empty their buckets over him. The 
tree has fallen, and everybody runs for his hatchet. 



JOHN- PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 79 

The house is on fire, and all the neighbors warm 
themselves. The man has ill luck, therefore his 
friends give him ill usage; he has tumbled into the 
road, and they drive their carts over him; he is 
down, and selfishness cries, *'Let him be kept 
down, then there will be the more room for those 
who are up." 

SPENDING. 

To earn money is easy compared with spending 
it well; anybody may dig up potatoes, but it is not 
one woman in ten that can cook them. Men do 
not become rich by what they get, but by what 
they save. Many men who have money are short 
of wit as a hog is of wool; they are under years 
of discretion, though they have turned forty, and 
make ducks and drakes of hundreds as boys do of 
stones. What their fathers got with rakes, they 
throw " away with shovel. After the miser comes 
the prodigal. Often men say of the spendthrift, 
his own father was no man's friend but his Own; 
and now the son is no man's enemy but his own; 
the fact is, the old gentleman went to hell by the 
lean road, and his son has made up his mind to go 
there by the fat. 



8o WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

HINTS AS TO THRIVING. 

Hard work is the grand secret of success. 
Nothing but rags and poverty can come of idle- 
ness. Elbow-grease is the only stuff to rnake gold 
with. No sweat, no sweet. He who would have 
the crow's eggs must climb the tree. Every man 
must build up his own fortune nowadays. Shirt- 
sleeves rolled up lead on to best broadcloth; and 
he who is not ashamed of the apron will soon be 
able to do without it. " Diligence is the mother of 
good luck," as poor Richard says; but "Idleness 
is the devil's bolster," as John Ploughman says. 

Believe in traveling on step by step; don't expect 

to be rich in a 'ump : 

Great greediness to reap 
Helps not the money heap. 

Slow and sure is better than fast and flimsy. Per- 
severance, by its daily gains, enriches a man far' 
more than fits and starts of fortunate speculation. 
Little fishes are sweet. Every little helps, as the 
sow said when she snapped at a gnat. Every day 
a thread makes a skein in a 3^ear. Brick by brick 
houses are built. We should creep before we 
walk, walk before we run, and run before we ride. 
In getting rich, the more haste the worse speed. 
Haste trips up its own heels. Hasty climbers have 
sudden falls. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 5i 

It is bad beginning business without capital. It 
is hard marketing with empty pockets. We want 
a nest-egg, for hens will lay where there are eggs 
already. It is- true you must bake with the flour 
you have, but if the sack is empty it might be 
quite as well not to set up for a baker. Making 
bricks without straw is easy enough compared with 
making money when you have none to start with. 
You, young gentleman, stay a journeyman a little 
longer, till you have saved a few pounds ; fly when 
your v/ings have got feathers ; but if you try it too 
soon you will be like the young rook that broke its 
neck through trying to fly before it was fledged. 
Every minnow wants to be a whale, but it is pru-' 
dent to be a little fish "while you have but little 
water; when your pond becomes the sea, then 
swell as much as 3^ou like. Trading without capi- 
tal is like building a house without bricks, making 
a fire without sticks, burning candles without wicks; 
it leads men into tricks, and lands them in a fix. 

Don't give up a small business till you see that a 
large one will pay you better. Even crumbs are 
bread. 

Better a poor horse than an empty stall ; 
Better half a loaf than none at all. 

Better a little furniture than an empty house. 
In these hard times, he who can sit on a stone and 



82 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

feed himself had better not move. From bad to 
worse is poor improvement. A crust is hard fare, 
but none at all is harder. Don't jump out of the 
frying-pan into the fire. Remember many men 
have done well in very small shops. A little trade 
with profit is better than a great concern at a loss; 
a small fire that warms you is better than a large 
fire that burns you. A great deal of w^ater can be 
got from a small pipe, if the bucket is always 
there to catch it. Large hares may be caught in 
small woods. A sheep may get fat in a small 
meadow, and starve in a great desert. He who 
undertakes too much succeeds but little. Two 
shops are like two stools, a man comes to the 
ground between them. You may burst a bag by 
trying to fill it too full, and ruin yourself by grasp- 
ing at too much. 

In a great river great lish are found, 
But take good heed lest you be drown'd. 

Make as few changes as you can; trees often 
transplanted bear little fruit. If you have difficul- 
ties in one place, 3^ou will have them in another; 
if you move because it is damp in the valley, you 
may find it cold on the hill. Where will the ass 
p-o that he will not have to work? Where can a 
cow live and not get milked? Where will you find 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK. 83 

land without stones, or meat without bones? 
Everywhere on earth men must eat bread in the 
sweat of their faces. To fly from trouble men 
must have eagie wings. Alteration is not always 
improvement, as the pigeon said when she got out 
of the net and into the pie. There is a proper 
time for changing, and then mind you bestir your- 
self, for a sitting hen gets no barley; but do not be 
forever on the shift, for a rolling stone gathers no 
moss. Stick-to-it is the conqueror. He who can 
wait long enough will win. This, that, and the 
other, anything and everything, all put together, 
make nothing in the end ; but on one horse a man 
rides home in due season. In one place the seed 
grows, in one nest the bird hatches its eggs, in one 
oven the bread bakes, in one river the fish lives. 

Do not be above your business. He who turns 
up his nose at his work quarrels with his bread 
and butter. He is a poor smith who is afraid of 
his own sparks: there's some discomfort in all 
trades except chimney-sweeping. If sailors gave 
up going to sea because of the wet, if bakers left 
off baking because it is hot work, if plowmen 
would not plow because of the cold, and tailors 
would not make our clothes for fear of pricking 
their fingers, what a pass we should come to I 



8(^ WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

Nonsense, my fine fellow, there's no shame about 
any honest calling; don't be afraid of soiling your 
hands, there's plenty of soap to be had. All 
trades are good to good traders. A clever man 
can make money out of dirt. Lucifer matches 
pay well, if you sell enough of them. 



ILLUSTRATJOA'S AND MEDITATIONS. 85 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEDITATIONS; 

Or, Flowers from a Puritan's Garden. 



BIRD TIED BY A STRING. 

"A bird that is tied by a string seems to have more liberty 
than a bird in a cage ; it flutters up and down, and yet it is 
held fast." 

• When a man thinks that he has escaped from 

the bondage of sin in general, and yet evidently 

remains under the power of some one favored lust, 

he is woefully mistaken in his judgment as to his 

spiritual freedom. He may boast that he is out of 

the cage, but assuredly the string is on his leg. 

He who has his fetters knocked off, all but one 

chain, is a prisoner still. ^'Let not any iniquity 

have dommion over me" is a good and wise prayer; 

for one pampered sin will slay the soul as surely as 

one dose of poison will kill the bod}^ There is no 

need for a traveller to be bitten by a score of deadly 

vipers, the tooth of one cobra is quite sufficient to 

insure his destruction. One sin, like one match, 

can kindle the fires of hell within the soul. 

The practical application of this truth should be 

made by the professor who is a slave to drink, or 



86 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

to covetousness, or to passion. How can 3^011 be 
free if any one of these chains still holds you fast? 
We have met with professors who are haughty, and 
despise others; how can these be the Lord's free 
men while pride surrounds them? 

THE CRACKED POT. 

"The unsoundness of a vessel is not seen when it is empty; 
but when it is filled with water, then we shall see whether it 
will leak or no.'* 

It is in our prosperity that we are tested. Men 
are not fully discovered to themselves till they are 
tried by fullness of success. Praise finds out the 
crack of pride, wealth reveals the flaw of selfish- 
ness, and learning discovers the leak of unbelief. 
David's besetting sin was little seen in the tracks 
of the wild goats, but it became conspicuous upon 
the terraces of his palace. Success is the crucible 
of character. Hence the prosperity which some 
welcome as an unmixed favor may far more rightly 
be regarded as an intense form of test. O Lord, 
preserve us when we are full as much as when we 
are empty. 

MEADOWS AND MARSHES, 

"Meadows may be occasionally flooded, but the marshes 
are drowned by the tide at every return thereof." 

There is all this difference between the sms of 

the righteous and those of the ungodly. Surprised 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEDITATIONS. 87 

by temptation, true saints are flooded with a pass- 
ing outburst of sin; but the wicked dehght in 
transgression and live in it as in their element. 
The samt ni his errors is a star under a cloud, but 
the sinner is darkness itself. The gracious may 
fall into iniquity, but the graceless run into it, 
wallow in it, and again an.] again return to it. 

THE WEAK STRONG, AND THE STRONG 
WEAK. 

** It is related of Laurence Saunders, the martj-r, that one 
day in the country, meeting' his friend Dr. Pendleton, an 
earnest preacher in King Edward's reign, they debated upon 
what they had best do in the dangerous time that Mary's 
accession had brought upon them. Saunders confessed that 
his spirit was ready, but he felt the flesh was at present too 
weak for much suffering. But Pendleton admonished him, 
and appeared all courage and forwardness to face every 
peril. They both came, under the control of circumstances, 
to London, and there, when danger arose, Pendleton shrunk 
from the cross, and Saunders resolutely took it up." 

The reader has probably met with this story 

before, but it w^ill not harm him to learn its lesson 

again. We are certainly stronger when we feel 

our weakness than when we glory in our strength. 

Our pastoral observation over a very large church 

has led us to expect to see terrible failures among 

those who carry their heads high among their 

brethren. Poor timid souls who are afraid to put 

one foot before another, for fear they should go 



88 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

an inch astray, go on from year to 3^ear in lovely, 
bashful holiness, and at the same time the very 
professors who condemned them, and distressed 
them by their confident pretensions, fall like Luci- 
fer, never to hope again. 

COVETOUSNESS AS A SERVANT. 

^Covetousness may be entertained as a servant where it is 
not entertained as a master — entertained as a servant to pro- 
vide oil and fuel to make other sins burn." 

Where avarice is the absolute master, the man is 
a miser; but even he is not more truly miserable 
than the man w^hose gainings only furnish oppor- 
tunity for indulging in vice. Such persons are 
greedy that they may become guilty. Their 
money buys them the means of their ov^n destruc- 
tion, and they are eager after it. Winning and 
saving with them are but means for profligacy, and 
therefore they think themselves fine, liberal fellows, 
and dispise the penurious habits of the miser. 
Yet in what respects are they better than he? 
Their example is certainly far more injurious to 
the commonwealth, and their motive is not one 
whit better. Selfishness is the mainspring of action 
in each case; the difference lies in the means 
selected and not in the end proposed. Both seek 
their own gratification, the one by damning up the 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEDITATIONS. 89 

river, and the other by drowning the country with 
its floods. Let the profligate judge for himself, 
whether he is one grain better than the greediest 
skinflint whom he so much ridicules. 

INFANTS AND SICK FOLK. 

"Though we cannot love their weaknesses, yet we must 
love the weak, and bear with their infirmities, not breaking 
the bruised reed. Infants must not be turned out of the 
family because they cry, and are unquiet and troublesome ; 
though they be peevish and froward, yet we must bear it 
with gentleness and patience, as we do the frowardness of 
the sick; if they'revile we mu-st not revile again, but must 
seek gently to restore them, notwithstanding all their 
censures." 

^ This patience is far too rare. We do not make 
allowances enough for our fellows, but sweepingly 
condemn those whom we ought to cheer with our 
sympathy. If we are out of temper ourselves, we 
plead the weather, or a headache, or our natural 
temperament, or aggravating circumstances; we 
are never at a loss for an excuse for ourselves, 
why should not the same ingenuity be used by our 
charity in inventing apologies and extenuations for 
others? It is a pit}^ to carry on the trade of apology- 
making entirely for home consumption; let us sup- 
ply others. True, they are very provoking, but if 
we suffered half as much as some of our irritable 
friends have to endure we should be even more 



90 WIT AND WISDOM OF SFURGEON. 

aggravating. Think in many cases of their igno- 
rance, their unfortunate bringing up, their povert}^, 
their depression of spirit, and their home surround- 
ings, and pity will come to the help of patience. 
We are tender to a man who has a gouty toe — 
cannot we extend the feeling to those who have an 
irritable soul? 

THE DRUNKEN SERVANT STILL A 
SERVANT. 

"A drunken servant is a servant, and bound to do his 
work ; his master loseth not his right by his man's default." 

It is a mere assumption, though some state it 
with much confidence, that inability removes re- 
sponsibility. As our author shows, a servant may 
be too drunk to do his master's bidding, but his 
service is still his master's due. If responsibility 
began and ended with ability, a man would be out 
of debt as soon as he was unable to pay ; and if a 
man felt that he could not keep his temper, he 
would not be blamable for being angry. A man 
may be bound to do what he cannot do; the 
habitual liar is bound to speak the truth, though 
his habit of falsehood renders him incapable of it. 
Every sin renders the sinner less able to do right, 
but the standard of his duty is not lowered in pro- 
portion to the lowering of his capacity to come up 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEDITATIONS. 91 

to it, or it would follow that the more a man is 
depraved by sin the less guilty his actions become, 
which is absurd. 

THE TRAITOR WITHIN. 

**A garrison is not free from danger while it hath an enemy 
lodged within." 

You may bolt all your doors, and fasten all your 

windows, but if the thieves have placed even a 

little child within doors, who can draw the bolts 

for them, the house is still unprotected. All the 

sea outside a ship cannot do it damage till the 

water enters within and fills the hold. Hence, it 

is clear, our greatest danger is from within. All 

the devils in hell and tempters on earth could do 

us no injury if there were no corruption in our 

nature. The sparks wdll fall harmlessly if there 

is no tinder. Alas, our heart is our greatest 

enemy; this is the little home-born thief. 

AUGUSTINE'S STORY. 

"Take heed of giving way to sin. The heart that was 
easily troubled before, when once it is inured to sin, loseth 
all its sensitiveness and tenderness, and what seemed intol- 
erable at first grows into a delight. Alipius, St. Austin's 
friend, first abhorred the bloody spectacles of the gladiators, 
but gave himself leave, through the importunity of friends, 
to be present for once. He would not so much as open his 
eyes at first; but at length, when the people shouted, he 
gave himself liberty to see, and then not only beheld the 



92 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

spectacles with delight, but drew others to behold what him- 
self once loathed." 

The Story has had its counterpart in thousands 

of instances. Men who shuddered at the sight of 

a dead bird have, by familiarity with cruelty, come 

to commit murder without compunction. Those who 

sipped half a glass of wine have come to drink by 

the gallon. Stanch Protestants have given way to 

some little form and ceremony, and become more 

popish than the Romanists themselves. There is 

no safety if we venture an inch over the boundary 

line; indeed, little allowances are more dangerous 

than greater compliances, since conscience does 

not receive a wound, and yet the man is undone, 

and falls by little and little. 

DRINKING TO DROWN CARE. 

"He is a mountebank who strives to make men forget 
their spiritual sorrows instead of leading them to the true 
cure. This is like a man in debt, who drinks to drown his 
thoughts ; but this neither pays the debt nor postpones the 
reckoning." 

When conscience is uneasy, it is foolish as well 

as wicked to attempt to smother its cries with 

worldly merriment. Nay, let us hear it patiently. 

If we be in debt let us know it, and set about 

meeting our liabilities like honest men ; but to burn 

the ledger and discharge the clerk is a madman's 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEDITATIONS. 93 

way of going to work. O soul, be true to thyself. 
Face thine own case, however bad it may be; for 
refusing to know and consider the sure facts will 
not alter or improve them. He is a cruel doctor 
who tells the afflicted patient that he ails nothing, 
and thus sets him for the time at his ease, at the 
terrible cost of future disease, rendered incurable 
by delay. 

Lord, bring me to the bar of my conscience 
now, lest I stand condemned at thy bar of judgment 
hereafter. 

C^SAR KILLED WITH BODKINS. 

"Not only do great sins ruin the soul, but lesser faults will 
do the same. Dallying with temptation leads to sad conse- 
quences. Caesar was killed with bodkins." 

A dagger aimed at the heart will give as deadly 
a wound as a huge two-handed sword, and a little 
sin unrepented of will be as fatal as a gross trans- 
gression. Brutus and Cassius and the rest of the 
conspirators could not have more surely ended 
Caesar's life wdth spears than they did with dag- 
gers. Death can hide in a drop, and ride in a 
breath of air. Our greatest dangers lie hidden in 
little things. Milton represents thousands of evil 
spirits as crowded into one hall ; and truly the least 
sin may be a very Pandemonium, in which a host 



94 IVJ'T AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

of evils may be concealed — a populous hive of 
mischiefs each one storing death. 

BERNARD'S CHARITY. 

"When Bernard chanced to espy a poor man meanly- 
apparelled, he would say to himself: 'Truly, Bernard, this 
man hath more patience beneath his cross than thou hast.' 
But if he saw a rich man delicately clothed, then he would 
say : * It may be that this man, under his delicate clothing, 
hath a better soul than thou hast under thy religious habit ! ' " 

This showed an excellent charity! Oh, that we 

could learn it! It is easy to think evil of all men, 

for there is sure to be some fault about each one 

which the least discerning may readily discover; 

but it is far more worthy of a Christian, and shows 

much more nobility of soul, to spy out the good in 

each fellow-believer. This needs a larger mind 

as well as a better heart, and hence it should be a 

point of a honor to practise ourselves in it till we 

obtam an aptitude for it. Any simpleton might be 

set to sniff out offensive odors ; but it would require 

a scientific man to bring to us all the fragrant 

essences and rare perfumes which lie hid in field 

and garden. Oh, to learn the science of Christian 

charity ! It is an art far more to be esteemed than 

the most lucrative of human labors. This choice 

art of love is the true alchemy. Charity towards 

others, abundantly practised, would be the death of- 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEDITATIONS. 95 

envy and the life of fellowship, the overthrow of 
self and the enthronement of grace. 

A SWORD NOT TO BE JUDGED BY THE 
BELT. 

"We do not judge a sword to be good merely because it 
hangs by a golden belt, or because it is set in a jewelled 
hilt." 

Neither is a doctrine to be valued because a fine 
orator delivers it in gorgeous speech with glittering 
words. A lie is none the better for being be- 
spangled with poetic phrases and high-sounding 
periods. Yet half our people forget this, and glit- 
tering oratory fascinates them. Alas, poor sim- 
pletons! 

The same blunders are made about men, who 
should ever be esteemed according to their native 
worth, and not according to their position and 
office. What mistakes we should make if we con- 
sidered all the hangers-on of great men to be them- 
selves great, or all the followers of good men to 
be themselves necessarily good. Alas! the Lord 
Himself had His Judas, and to this day swords of 
brittle metal hang at the golden girdle of His 
church. A man is not a saint because he occupies 
a saintly office, or repeats saintly words. 

No; the test of a sword's goodness is to be found 



96 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

in battle. Will its edge turn in the fray, or will it 
cut through a coat of mail? Will our faith bear 
affliction? Will it stand us in good stead when we 
are hand to hand with the enemy? Will it avail 
us in the dying hour? If not, we may suspend it 
on the glittering belt of great knowledge, and hold 
it by the jev/elled hilt of a high profession; but 
woe unto us! 

SATAN CASTING OUT SATAN. 

"Lusts are contrary one to another, and therefore jostle 
for the throne, and usually take it by turns. As our ances- 
tors sent for the Saxons to drive out the Picts, so do carnal 
men drive out one lust by another, and, like the lunatic in 
the gospel (Matt, xvii,) fall sometimes into the water, and 
sometimes into the fire." 

Of what use then can reforms be which are 
wrought by an evil agency? If sobriety be the 
fruit of pride, it grows upon a pernicious root, and 
though the body be no longer intoxicated, the mind 
will be drunken. If revenge be foresworn from 
considerations of avarice, the meanness of the 
miserly is a small gain upon the fury of the pas- 
sionate. If outward irreligion be abandoned out 
of a desire to gain human applause, the Pharisee 
will be a very slender improvement upon the prod ■ 
igal. Satan's casting out of Satan is deceitful 
work; his intent no doubt is to establish his empire 
by pretending to overthrow it. 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEDITATIONS. 97 

No, there must be another power at work; or 
little is accomplished. An}^ fancied good which 
one devil may bring another is sure to take away, 
and the last end of the man whom Satan mends is 
always w^orse than the first. A stronger than he 
must enter in by force of grace, and hurl him out 
by divine force, and take full possession, or the 
man may be another man but not a new man. 

THE BURNING-GLASS. 

"When the beams of the sun are contracted by a burning- 
glass, upon one spot, then they cause fire ; so when our 
thoughts are conctntrated on one object they warm the heart 
and at last burn the truth into it." 

This is the reason why so many sermons and 
addresses are so cold and ineffective; they are not 
sufficiently focused upon one point. There are 
many rays of light, but they are scattered. We 
get a little upon many things, w^hile what is Avanted 
is one great truth, and so much upon it as shall fix 
It on the heart, and set the soul blazino- with it. 
This is the fault of many lives: they are squan- 
dered upon a dozen objects, whereas if they were 
economized for one, they would be mighty lives, 
known in the present and honored in the future. 
"This one thing I do" is a necessar}^ motto if we 
are to accomplish anything. 



g8 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

BARKING DOGS CATCH NO GAME. 

**Hard speeches have an evil influence in controversy, and 
do exasperate rather than convince. The dog that followeth 
the game with barking and bawHng loseth the prey; and 
there is not a more likely way to undermine the truth than 
an unseemly defence of it. Satan is mightily gratified, if men 
had eyes to see it, with the ill managing of God's cause." 

This lesson is a needful one. Zealots are apt to 
mistake hard words for arguments. The more in 
earnest we are, the more we are tempted to speak 
bitterly, and to overlook the better side of our oppo- 
nent's cause. Many who think with us applaud 
us most for those very utterances which deserve the 
censure of the wise ; and this foolish commendation 
is apt to ^Q^<g us on in the same unprofitable direc- 
tion. They would be more judicious if, while ap- 
proving our seal, they hinted that we might use a 
sweeter method and be none the less strong. 

We hope as we grow older to be able to hunt 
more quietly, with surer scent but with less bark- 
ing. Certainly as we grow in grace we shall more 
carefully distinguish between holy ardor which is 
kindled by the Spirit, and carnal heat, which is the 
wild-fire of unrenewed nature. God grant that as 
we growpi'udent we may not also become luke- 
warm; else we may gain one way and lose another. 
We are poor creatures, for when we try to avoid an 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MEDITATIONS. 9'J 

evil we generally swing like a pendulum to the 
opposite quarter, and commit another folly The 
middle point, the golden mean of virtue, We do not 
readily reach. 

VIOLET AND NETTLE. 

"Laden boughs hang low. The nettle mounteth above its 
fellow weeds, but the violet lieth shrouded under its leaves, 
and is only found out by its own scent." 

Walking one day by a stream we were conscious 
of a delicious perfume, and only then did we perceive 
the little blue eyes which were looking up to us so 
meekly from the ground on which w^e stood. Virtue 
is always modest, and modesty is itself a virtue. He 
who is discovered by. his real excellence, and not 
by his egotistical advertisements of his own perfec- 
tions, is a man worth knowing; the other is a mere 
nettle who is sure to be forgotten, unless indeed his 
blustering pride should sting some tender spirit and 
secure a wretched kind of remembrance. 



^'i 



loo WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 



THE CLEW OF THE MAZE 



LET US LIVE. 

The most important part of human life is not its end, but 
its beginning. Our death-day is the child of the past, but 
our opening years are the sires of the future. At the last 
hour men summon to their bedside a solemnity of thought 
which arrives too late for any practical result. The hush 
and awe and far-away look, so frequent in departing mo- 
ments, should have come much sooner. Commend us to the 
example of the Hebrew king, who fasted and wore sackcloth 
while the child was yet alive. Wisely did he foresee the 
uselessness of lamenting when the scene should close. "Can 
I bring him back again?" was one of the most sensible of 
questions. 

It may be serious business to take the cold iron from the 
anvil ; it seems to us far sadder to be standing still, and see- 
ing the hot bar grow chill. Brother, at my side, whoever 
you may be, let us STRiKe! 

WHAT HAS DOUBT ACHIEVED? 

How is it that no such trophy has ever been raised to the 
honor of unbelief? Will the poet of infidelity and the his- 
torian of scepticism yet appear? If so, what will be their 
record ? "Working righteousness" and ''obtaining promises" 
are rather out of the line of doubt, and it is not likely to 
endure much suffering to "obtain a better resurrection," for 
it sneers at the mention of such a thing ; the eulogist of 
doubt would have to content himself with lower achieve- 
ments. But what would they be? What hospitals or orphan- 
ages has doubt erected? What missions to cannibal tribes 
has infidelity sustained ? What fallen women or profligate 
men has scepticism reclaimed and new-created? 



THE CLE IV OF TI/E MAZE. i )i 

DOUBT IS STERILE. 

The fact is that doubt is negative, destructive, sterile. It 
constrains no man to nobler things, and begets in the human 
mind no hopes or aspirations. It is by no means a principle 
upon which to base life's fabric ; for whatever force it has is 
subversive, and not constructive. A principle which tends 
to nothing but universal smash is not one to which an ordi- 
nary man may contentedly commit the ruling of his life. 
What if some religious notions be mere fancy, impractical, 
and imaginary ? It is no great thing after all to be good at 
breaking up the bric-a-brac of the house. However much 
the coldly-wise may rejoice to be rid of what they call rub- 
bish, it will be no great feat to sweep away all the frail 
f^ibrics ; the genius required is akin to that which is incar- 
nate in a monkey or wild bull. Our ambition lies in a higher 
region ; we would construct rather than destroy. Since we 
aspire to honorable and useful lives, we seek a positive force 
which will bear us onward and upward. Those who prefer 
to do so may doubt, and doubt, and doubt to the dregs of 
nothing ; but our choice is to find truth and believe it, that 
it may be a life-force to us. No partisan has yet had the 
hardihood to preach an evangel of ''doubt and live ;''' for too 
manifestly doubt is akin to death ; but believe and live is 
the essence of the message from heaven, and we accept it. 

SELF-RELIANCE AND A BETTER RELIANCE. 

Self-reliance is inculcated as a moral virtue, and in a cer- 
tain sense, with due surroundings, it is so. Observation and 
experience show that it is a considerable force in the world. 
He who questions his own powers, and does not know his 
ov/n mind, hesitates, trembles, falters, fails; his diffidence is 
the author of his disappointment. The self-reliant individual 
hopes, considers, plans, resolves, endeavors, perseveres 
succeeds ; his assurance of victory is one leading cause of 
his triumph. A man believes in his own capacity, and unless 
he is altogether a piece of emptiness he gradually convinces 
others that his estimate is correct. Even self-conceit, im- 
modest though it be, has sometimes acted forcefully, just as. 



102 IVI7' AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

at a pinch, Dutch courage has supplied the place of valor. 
The essence of the matter is that confidence of some sort is 
an item of great importance in accomplishing our designs, 
and distrust or doubt is a source of weakness in any and 
every case. Faith, then, we choose, rather than doubt, as 
the mainspring of our life. 

SCEPTICISM— NO VERY GREAT ACHIEVEMENT. 

It has been well said, "Nothing is easier than to doubt. A 
man of moderate ability or learning can doubt more than the 
wisest men believe." Faith demands knowledge, for it is an 
intelligent grace, able and anxious to justify itself; but 
infidelity is not required to give a reason for the doubt that 
is in it ; a defiant mien and a blustering tone, answer its pur- 
pose quite as well as argument. In fact, the present acme of 
unbelief -is to know nothing; and what is this but the 
apothesis of ignorance? Great is the glory of knowing 
nothing ! 

A man may glide into agnosticism insensibly, and remain 
in it languidly ; but to believe is to be alive — alive to conflict 
and watchfulness. Those who think faith to be a childish 
business will have to make considerable advances toward 
manliness-before they are able to test their own theory. 

Shall we prefer doubt because it is so ready to our hand, or 
shall we become truth-seekers even if we have to dive like 
pearl-fishers ? That depends upon the mind which is in us. 
We shall elect our life-rule according to the spirit within. A 
brave soul will not tamely follow the ignoble way of the 
many, but will aspire to the higher paths even if they be the 
more difficult. 

FAITH IN THE UNSEEN. 

That we. should limit our confidence to the region of our 
senses is an absurd supposition. No man has seen, or heard, 
or tasted the greatest of known forces. Steam, electricity, 
gravitation, and the rest of the -giants, are all invisible. The 
earth is preserved in its orbit by forces which we cannot 
grasp. " He hangeth the world upon nothing." The visible 
powers are of minor rank ; the more completely a force can 



THE CLEW OF THE MAZE. 103 

be compassed by human thought, the more insignificant it 
must be. Take an ilkistration from daily life : the old Latin 
proverb hath it, that it is the mark of a poor man than he can 
count his flocks. The few pounds.which he has saved can 
be handled by the artisan every hour of the day if their 
jingle pleases him; but the great banker has never seen his 
millions, and the evidence that he possesses them lies in cer- 
tain bonds and bills in which he places unquestionable reli- 
ance. He is rich by faith. He could hardly be very rich and 
actually see his wealth. 

GOD CAN BE KNOWN. 

It has been asserted that God cannot be known. Those 
who say this declare that they themselves know nothing but 
phenomena; and therefore they are bound, if candid, to 
admit that they do not themselves know that God cannot be 
known. As they confessedly know nothing about it, they 
should not be offended if we leave them out of our con- 
sideration. 

He who made the world was certainly an intelligent Being, 
in fact, the highest Intelligence; for in myriads of ways His 
works display the presence of profound thought and knowl- 
edge. Lord Bacon said, "I had rather believe all the fables 
of the Talmud and the Koran than that this universal frame 
is without a Mind." This being so, we do in that very fact 
know God in a measure ; aye, and in such a measure that we 
are prepared to trust Him. He that made all things is more 
truly an object of confidence than all things that He has 
made. 

GOD'S EXISTENCE NOT TAKEN FOR GRANTED. 

Do we take God's existence for granted ? Certainly not. 
We believe it to be a fact proved beyond any other. To the 
candid mind, not diseased with cavilling, but honestly 
rational, the existence of a work proves the existence of a 
worker, a design necessitates a designer, a forethought in- 
volves a fore-thinker. Now, if we were even in a desert with 
Mungo Park, a bit of moss would be argument enough that 



i64 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPUKGEON, 

God was there ; or, for the matter of that, the sand under 
our feet and the sun above our heads would suffice to prove 
that fact. But dwelHng- on a fair island, teeming with all 
manner of life, we may cQunt as many proofs of the Godhead 
as there are objects of sight, and hearing, and taste, and 
smell. 

This, of course, is called a " mere platitude;" but, by the 
gentleman's leave, his Latin word makes no difference to 
the absolute certainty of the argument. 

If more proofs were offered, they would no doubt be 
blocked in the same captious manner; but contemptuous, 
epithets are no replies to fair reasoning. We conceive that 
one sound proof is better than twenty faulty ones ; and if 
that one does not convince, neither would a legion. The 
French savants, en route for Egypt, pestered Napoleon with 
their denials of a God, but his astute intellect was not led 
astray. He took them upon deck, and pointing to the stars, 
demanded, "Who made all these ? " 

DOUBT LOGICALLY CARRIED OUT. 

Doubt, as to the being of a God, has but a short way to run 
to finish its legitimate career. No man who believes that he 
has a soul can give better proof of his mental being than 
that which we can give of the existence, of God, Let him 
try. He claims that his own consciousness is a proof of his 
being alive. We reply that it may be very good evidence to 
himself, but it can be none to us*, nor would a rational man 
attempt to use it in that way. Our friend answers, "I work, 
and my work demonstrates that I am." Precisely so, and 
God's works demonstrate that He is. Quickly it is replied, 
"But you see me work, and you see not God." To which 
we answer, we by no means see you work ; your body is not 
yourself, your true self we have never seen. Your mind ex- 
ecutes its purpose through your external frame, and we see 
your limbs moving ; but the soul which moves them is out 
of sight, and it is a mystery of mysteries how a spiritual 
subsistence, such as the mind is, should be able to operate 
upon matter. The initial impression of mind upon matter is 



THE CLEW OF THE MAZE. 105 

a secret which no mortal has unveiled. You cannot prove 
the existence of your soul to another man except by the 
same arguments which prove the being of God. 

THE GREAT GOD ANSWERING TO FAITH. 

Moreover, we may not refuse reliance upon God on the 
ground of our insignificance ; for it is not conceivable that 
anything can be too little for God. The wonders of the 
microscope are quite as remarkable as those of the tele- 
scope ; we may not set a bound to the Lord in one direction 
any more than in the other. He can and will show His 
divine skill in a man's life, as well as in a platlfet's circuit. 

Witnesses are alive to testify to the Lord's making bare 
His arm on the behalf of them that trust Him. Any man 
may also put the principle to the test in his own instance ; 
and it is memorable that none have done so in vain. There 
are no reasons in Ilis nature why God should not answer to 
His creatures' confidence; there are many reasons why lie 
should ; at any rate as far as we are concerned, we are ready 
to put it to the test, and to let the experiment last through- 
out our whole existence. 

WHY IS NOT GOD RELIED ON ? 

Does it not seem. remarkable that so few men should lov- 
ingly reach forth to the idea of linking their lives to God 
in faith ? Why is it ? The severe moralist would rightly 
answer — because they have no desire^ to lead lives with 
which God could have any connection ; they seek not such 
purity, truth, justice, holiness as God's energy w^ould work 
in them. Doubtless this is the case ; but let it not be true of 
us. Virtue is so admirable that we cannot have too much of 
it, and the fact that the divine power makes toward good- 
ness is one of its chief attractions in the eyes of right- 
minded men. 

FURTHER CAUSES OF NON-BELIEF. 

Secretly men have a confidence somewhere, even when 
they refuse to rely upon God. They have made gods of 



io6 IV/T AA'I) WISDOM OF SPLrKCEON, 

themselves, and have come to rest in self-sufficiency. Hr 
who has never seen his own face may easily believe in its 
superlative beauty, if he be aided therein by flatterers. So a 
man who knows not his own heart may readily form a high 
opinion of his own excellence, and find confidence in his 
own wisdom a plant of rapid growth. This is one of the 
worst enemies of faith. He who can for all time rely upon 
himself has no patience with talk about faith in God ; he 
relegates that lowly stuff to underlings; he is of courtlier 
mould. His self-restraint is perfect, his judgment is infal- 
lible, his appreciation of the morally beautiful is fully devel- 
oped ; he is a ^elf-made man, and is both his own Providence 
and Rewarder. 

''Tut — the man is a fool P' Quick and sensible minds 
speaks thus impatiently ; and the cooler observations of the 
charitable are sorrowfully driven to confirm their verdict. 
We, with whom the reader now communes, are not such 
grand self-governing infallibles. We fear that our appetites 
and passions may betray us, that our reason may misguide 
us, that our prejudices may impede us, that our surround- 
ings may stumble us; and, therefore, most deliberately 
would we look to the Strong for strength, and cast our folly 
upon the wisdom of the Eternal. Of course we shall not 
expect imitators among the vainglorious, the frivolus, and 
the fancifully perfect. 

THE SNEER. 

Sneers are poor, paltry things ; they are not born in good 
men's bosoms, and most wise men despise them when 
levelled at themselves. They break no bones, and men of 
backbone smile at them. Yet with the weaker sort they are 
terrible weapons of war, and the dread of them has made 
more cowards than the roar of cannon. 

"I had as liefinot be, as live to be 
In awe of such a thing as I, myself." 

SEEING FOR ONE'S SELF. 

We are not exacting when we demand than each candid 
man should read the Bible for himself In testing a book, 



THE CLEW OF THE MAZE. 107 

which professes to be the revelation of God's mind, we shall 
act unworthily if we trust to others, be they who they may. 
Second-hand information lacks assurance and vividness; a 
personal investigation is far more satisfactory and beneficial. 
The highly superior person, who dismisses the whole matter 
with a final verdict, which closes the argument before it is 
opened, is probably not so cultured a being as he affects to 
be. At any rate, he lacks the judicial mind so helpful in the 
pursuit of truth. Doth our wisdom decide a matter before 
it heareth it? 

Nature demands attention, hard and persevering, from 
those who would be true scientists ; the Word of God cer- 
tainly deserves as reverent an investigation as His works. 
Why should not the scriptures be studied thoroughlv? Even 
as mere literature they will well reward the scholar's care. 
It is the part of a wise man calmly and earnestly to search 
those famous writings which are prized by so many master- 
minds. The voice which cried to Augustine, ''Tolle: lege,'' 
was no sound of folly. To take up and read a great and 
good book cannot be to our detriment. 

SOMEWHAT MORE THAN READING ACCORDED. 

Much of the instruction contained in the material universe 
can be at once discerned by the eye of the thoughtful ob- 
server, but a portion of its secrets no man can thus read ; for 
the discovery of much scientific truth experiment is needed. 
The chemist, for instance, will acquire little knowledge if he 
does not engage in tests and analyses. W^e will not, there- 
fore, in the pursuit of truth, restrict ourselves to mere read- 
ing ; if the scriptures ask for experiment or experience, we 
shall be prepared to perform or to undergo the required pro- 
cesses, if at all reasonable. 

EFFECTS OF THE BOOK. 

The effect which it has produced upon the nations w^ho 
have yielded it even a partialobedience is very remarkable; 
they are now far in advance of those who give it a secondary 
place, and they are out of sight before those who are unac- 



108 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

quainted with it. The result which follows its introduction 
in our own day, to the most savage races, is beyond all 
question exceedingly beneficial. Nobody can doubt that the 
South Sea Islands have been lifted out of the worst savagery 
by the teaching of this volume. We have not yet heard of 
any other book producing such effects, and thus the volume 
is pressed upon our attention by the undeniable results of its 
influence, both in former ages and in our own times. It is 
very easy to discover persons whose entire character has 
been changed by reading this Book ; easier still to find 
individuals who assert that it is their comfort under all 
circumstances, their guide out of all difficulties, and the 
priceless food of their spirits. 

Many other books have been warmly praised by their 
readers ; but we have never yet met with any other volume 
which has commanded such frequent enthusiasm and such 
devoted affection as the Bible : neither have we heard of 
one which answers so many and such divers purposes in 
connection with the lives of men. 

FULNESS OF THE BOOK. 

One of the marvels of the Bible is its singular fulness. It 
is not a book of gold-leaf beaten thin, as most books are as 
to thought ; but its sentences are nuggets of unalloyed truth. 
The book of God is clearly the god of books, for it is infi- 
nite. Well said a German author, "In this little book is 
contained all the wisdom of the world." 

"We search the world for truth ; we cull 
The good, the pure, the beautiful 
From graven stone and written scroll, 
From all old flower-fields of the soul ; 
And, weary seekers of the b.?st. 
We come back laden from the quest, 
To find that all the sages said 
Is in the Book our mothers read." 

Two liter ati\\€\.6. a brief discussion as to which of all books 
they would prefer in prison if they were shut up to the choice 
of one, and could not obtain another for twelve months. 
The first made a sensible selection when he pro- 



THE CLEW OF THE MAZE. loy 

posed to take Shakespeare as his companion ; for that great 
author's works are brimming- with fresh thoughts and mas- 
terly expression ; but we tliink the second man gave an un- 
answerable reason for preferring the Bible. "Why," said 
his friend, "you do not believe in it!" "No," said he, "but 
whether I believe in it or not, it is no end of a book.'''' 

We thank him for that word; it is, indeed, "no end of a 
book." Its range of subjects is boundless, and its variety of 
treatment is indescribable. Its depth of thought and height 
of expression are immeasurable. It is altogether inexhausti- 
ble. It is a million-times magnified Bodleian of teaching, 
and its Bibline or book essence is of the most concentrated 
kind. The Scripture has incidentally suggested masses of 
human literature, and it is the actual material of books to an 
extent that few would credit. It contains vast stores of what 
we may call inother-of -thought. 

After having been catechised, criticised, caricatured, and 
crucified, for all these centuries, it still remains a new book, 
commencing its circulation rather than ending it. When the 
world grows older and wiser, and attains to the sixth form of 
its school, the sacred volume will be its final classic, just as 
it was its first hand-book when the new-born Hebrew nation 
began to spell out the rudiments of truth and righteousness. 

THE SINLESS ONE. 

A clear proof of the Divine Origin of Scripture is afforded 
by its portrait of the Perfect Man. Jesus is sinless in thought, 
and word, and deed ; His enemies are unable to find a fault 
in Him either of excess or defect. Nowhere else in the 
world have we such another portrait of man ; it v/ould be 
superfluous to say that nowhere have we such another man. 
Jesus is unique ; He is original, with peculiarities all His 
own, but without any divergence from the straight line of 
rectitude. He is not a recluse, whose character would have 
few relationships, and therefore few tests, but one living in 
the fierce light of a King among men, coming into relation 
with the world in a thousand ways ; a great ethical Teacher, 
inculcating a system far surpassing any other, and embody- 



no WIT AND WISDOiM OF SPURGEON, 

ing it in His own life ; above all, crowning the edifice of a 
perfect life with the surrender of Himself to death for His 
enemies. Whence came this portrait, if the man never ex- 
isted ? No painter goes beyond his own ideal ; no imperfect 
mind could have invented the perfect mind of Christ. The 
record is divine. 

SCIENCE AND THE BOOK AT ONE. 

Between the revelation of God in His Word and that in 
His Works, there can be no actual discrepancy. The one 
may go farther than the other, but the revelatixDn must be 
harmonious. Between the interpretation of the Works and 
the interpretation of the Word, there may be very great dif- 
ferences. It must be frankly admitted that the men of the 
Book have sometimes missed its meaning; we have never 
held the doctrine of the infallibility of scripturists. Nay, 
more : it is certain that, in their desire to defend their Bible, 
devout persons have been unwise enough to twist its words, 
or at least to set them in an unnatural light, in order to make 
the Book agree with the teachings of scientific men. Herein 
has lain their v^eakness. If they had always labored to 
understand what God said in His Book, and had steadfastly 
adhered to its meaning, whatever might be advanced by the 
scientific, they would have been wise ; and as professed sci- 
ence advanced towards real science, the fact that the old 
Book is right would have become more and more apparent. 

SCIENTIFIC STATEMENTS NOT INFALLIBLE. 

Those who have addicted themselves to the study of nature 
and have despised the Word, certainly cannot claim such 
immunity from mistake as to demand a revision of Scripture 
interpretation every time they enthrone a new hypothesis. 
The history of philosophy, from the beginning until now, 
reads very like a Comedy of Errors. Each generation of 
learned men has been eminently successful in refuting all its 
predecessors, and there is every probability that much of 
what is now indorsed as orthodox scientific doctrine will be 
entirely upset in a few year's time. When we remember that 



THE CLEW OF THE MAZE. in 

one coterie of savans has proved to a demonstration that 
there is no such thing- as mind, and that another has been 
equally successful in proving that there is no such thing as 
as matter, we are led to ask the question : ** When doctors 
differ, who is to decide ? " 

LITTLE SETTLED IN SCIENCE. 

There are many voices in the world, some powerful, and 
others weak ; but there is not yet a conce7isus of thoughtful 
observers sufficiently strong to demonstrate any one system 
of science to be absolutely true. The inductive process of 
Bacon, no doubt, yields the nearest approach to certainty; 
but even this cannot raise a deduction beyond question, for 
no man of science knows all the instances that can be ad- 
duced, and his deduction from what he knows may be upset 
by equally sure inferences from what he does not know. The 
time over which scientific observations can travel, even if it 
be extended into ages, is but as a watch in the night com- 
pared with the eternity of God ; and the range of human 
observation is but as a drop of the bucket compared with the 
circle of the heavens; and therefore it may turn out, in a 
thousand instances, that there are more things in heaven and 
earth than were ever dreamed of in the most accurate phi- 
losophy of scientists. These good people have done their 
best, from Aristotle downward, but they have hardly accom- 
plished more than to prove us all dunces, and themselves 
scarcely a fig better than the rest of us. 

NO REMARKABLE PRESENT DIFFICULTY. 

At the present moment we see no considerable difficulty. 
Scripture may not square with proposed hypotheses, but it 
agrees with known facts. Scripture, interpreted in an intel- 
ligent manner, displays as clear an agreement with Nature 
and Providence as Words can show with Works. An article 
in the Illustrated London News may describe in words a 
scene which, on the opposite page, is depicted by the pencil 
of an accurate artist ; the two forms of instruction may fully 
coincide, and yet the impression upon the reader who fails 



112 ]VIT AND WISDOM OF SPUKGEON. 

to see tnc engraving may not be the same as that produced 
upon an observer who only notices the sketch and neglects 
the letter-press. The man who cared only for the typog- 
raphy might quarrel with the votary of the wood-block, 
while the picture observer might equally well retort upon 
the reader ; but if the two could be combined, the intent of 
the author would more surely be understood. Let him that 
readeth the Word consider the Work, and let him that ob- 
serveth Nature attend to Revelation, and growing wisdom 
shall be the reward of both. 



REMOVAL OF THE GREAT OBSTACLE 
TO FAITH. 

Concerning the consciousness of evil in the past of our 
lives and the tendency to wrong-doing in our nature, the 
Bible is very clear, and it is most admirably explicit as to 
God's way of removing this barrier to our future progress. 
In Holy Scripture we see a most wise and gracious method 
for the putting away of guilt, without injury to the divine 
justice. The atonement offered by the Lord Jesus, who is 
the essence of the revelation of God, is an eminently satis- 
factory solution of the soul's sternest problem. Our feeling 
is that God, the universal Ruler, must do right, and must not, 
even for mercy's sake, relax the rule that evil done must' 
bring evil as its consequence. We would not, when in our 
best frame of mind, for our own little sake, wish to have 
this sanitary law abrogated. Sin ought to be punished ; let 
the rule stand, come what may of us. An unrighteous God 
would be the most terrible of conceivable evils. Sin linked 
with reward or divorced from ill consequences would be the 
death of the great principle of righteousness, which is the 
aspiration of all perfect moral sanity. Scripture proposes 
no abolition of law or relaxation of penalty, but it reveals 
the plan of substitution , the offended Judge bears in His 
(■WW person the con'feequences of the offence of rebel man ; 
He assumes human nature, that in His own person human 
sin may be visited with chastisement. 



THE CLEW OF THE MAZE. 113 

GOD'S METHOD OF MERCY. 

Forgiveness of sin through an atonement satisfies a dim 
but true decision of humanity in favor of justice— a decision 
which is well-nigh unanimous in all races. Even the unen- 
lightened conscience of the savage heathen will not rest till 
the sword is bared and a victim has fallen. Man as a rule 
dares not approach God without a sacrifice. The more 
enlightened mind is not content without a measure of ex- 
planation as to the need and result of sacrifice ; such 
explanation is given in the inspired Scripture, given with 
great amplitude. 

P^AITH DELIGHTS IN A PLAIN GOSPEL. 

It is a matter of deep gratitude that the Gospel is as plain 
as a pikestaff. If it had been intended to be a secret remedy 
for an elite few, it might have been recondite and philosoph- 
ical ; but it is meant for the poor, the illiterate, and the 
undeveloped ; and therefore it must needs be what it is — 
simplicity itself. Thank God, the Gospel does not lend itself 
to quackery ! To hear our fashionable thinkers talk, one 
might suppose the Gospel to be an exclusive and aristocratic 
system for their excellencies to amuse themselves with, 
whenever they might condescend to develop it a little fur- 
ther. We are glad to find it in the Scriptures in the form of 
a plain, common-sense, perfect doctrine, which has saved its 
millions already, and is saving multitudes at the present 
moment, and will save its myriads, when all its superfine 
critics are mouldering in their graves. Sometimes faith has 
great need of patience, when it is pestered with objections 
against a system which is everywhere in grand operatiqn, 
and proving itself by its results. Why do not these objectors 
raise an outcry against the sun ? Why not deny that he gives 
either light or heat? 

FAITH AND THE NATURE OF CHRIST. 

No idea of the Lord Jesus Christ approaches to correct- 
ness which does not see in His one person the two natures of 
God and man united. In that person, wherein were 



114 ^VIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

%, 

blended, but not confused, the Godhead and the Manhood, 
a practical faith has its most ample help. Jesus sympathizes 
with the condition in which the straggler after excellence 
finds himself, for He also was tempted in all points like as 
we are ; He knows the difficulties which grow out of the 
infirmities of flesh and blood, for He felt sickness and pain, 
poverty and hunger, weakness and depression. It is a great 
gain in a human career, a specially suitable assistance, to 
have an unlimited power at one's side by sympathizing with 
our weakness. 

Nor is the advantage less in the other direction, for here 
IS a Man, bound to us by relationship and affection the most 
intense, who is not only tender to the last degree of our 
suffering nature, but is also as wise a.s He is brotherly, and 
as mighty to subdue our faults as He is gentle to bear with 
our frailties. His Manhood brings Jesus down to us, but 
united with the Mivine nature it lifts us up to God. The 
Lord Jesus thus not only ministers to our comfort, but to our 
betterment, which is the greater concern of the two. 

Could faith believe in a Being more answerable to* all our 
needs, more helpful to our noblest longings? Allied to 
Jesus, we confidently aspire to such likeness to our Creator 
as it is possible for a creature to bear. 

ENTHUSIASM FOR THE PERSON OF JESUS. 

The love of the believer to the Lord Jesus is intensely 
personal and enthusiastic. It overtops all other affections. 
His love. His sufferings. His perfections. His glories fill the 
heart and set it on fire. There is more force in the love of 
an actual living person than in subscription to any set of 
doctrines, however important they may be. The courage of 
a leader has often produced deeds of daring which no phi- 
losophy could have demanded 



SERMON EXTRACTS. 115 



SERMON EXTRACTS, 



Providence Like a Wheel. 

You know in a wheel there is one portion that never turns 
round, that stands steadfast, and that is the axle. So, in 
God's Providence there is an axle which never moves. Chris- 
tian, here is a sweet thought for thee ! Thy state is ever 
changing; sometimes thou ar; exalted, and sometimes de- 
pressed ; yet there is an unmoving point in thy state. What 
is that axle ? What is the pivot upon which all the machinery 
revolves ? It is the axle of God's everlasting love towards 
his covenant people. The exterior of the wheel is changing, 
but the centre stands forever fixed. Other things may move, 
but God's love never moves ; it is the axle of the wheel, and 
this is another reason why Providence should be compared 
to a wheel. 

Babel Building. 

But' I know you will go away, many of you, and try to 
build up your own Babel tower, to go to heaven. Some of 
you will go one way to work, and some another. You will go 
the'ceremony way; you will lay the foundation of the struc- 
ture with infant baptism, build confirmation on it, and the 
Lord's Supper. "I shall go to heaven ;" you say, "do not I 
keep Good Friday and Christmas Day? I am a better man 
than those dissenters. I am a most extraordinary man. Do 
I not say more prayers than anyone? " You will be a long 
while going up that treadmill before you get an inch higher. 
That is not the way to get to the stars. One says, "I will go 
and study the Bible, and believe right doctrine ; and I have 
no doubt that by believing right doctrine I shall be saved." 
Indeed, you will not ! You can be no more saved by believ- 
ing right doctrine than you can by doing right actions. 



ii6 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

** There," says another, "I like that; I shall go and believe 
in Christ, and live as I like." Indeed you will not! For if 
you believe in Christ he will not let you live as your flesh 
liketh ; by His Spirit he will constrain you to mortify its 
affections and lusts. If he gives you the grace to make you 
believe, he will give you the grace to live a holy life after- 
wards. If he gives you faith, he gives you good works 
afterwards. You cannot believe in Christ unless you re- 
nounce every fault, and resolve to serve him with full pur- 
pose of heart. 

How TO Go A Begging. 

Sometimes you say, "But I am not fit to go to Christ. 
"The fittest way to go to Christ is to go just as you are. 
What is the best livery to wear when you go a begging? I 
recollect, some time ago, when I lived not far from here, in 
the extremeness of my greenness, I gave a man who begged 
at the door a pair of patent leather boots. He put them on, 
and expressed great gratitude ; but I met him afterwards, 
and I was not at all surprised to find that he had pulled them 
off. They were not at all the style of things to go about 
begging in. People would look at him and say: "What! 
you needing coppers while wearing those handsome boots? 
Your tale won't do." A beggar succeeds a great deal better 
barefoot than in fine shoes. Rags are the livery of mendi- 
cants. When you go to beg for mercy at the hands of God, 
do not put on those pretty righteousness of yours, but go 
with all your sin and misery, and emptiness, and wretched- 
ness, and say: "Lord, here am I. Thou hast sai4 that 
Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto 
God by him. I am a soul that wants saving to the uttermost, 
and here I am, I have come. Lord, save me." 

The Accuser of the Brethren. 

I now turn to another individual, a very common person- 
age, the accicser of the brethren, I fear I have not a few here 
of that sort. I know I have some, but I fear there may be 
more than I think. Do you not know the man, who, when- 



SERMON EXTRACTS. 117 

ever ne can say a vile thing of a Christian will do it; who, 
whatever a Christian man may do will make mischief of it, 
who is inclined at all times to be turning that which is good 
into- evil; a man described by Spenser in his picture of envy 
in the "Faerie Queen." Envy, who always did chaw between 
his dripj)ing lips a toad, but "inwardly he chawed his own 
man," eating his own heart, spitting on every one's good 
thing, imagining that every creature was as foul and as loath- 
some as himself. I have seen the dirty mangy wretch, him- 
self abominable as sin, daring to insinuate that all others 
were as deceitful, vile and filthy as himself. This is when 
the evil has come to its full grown state. Such persons then 
become the most loathsome creatures in all society, and the 
most despicable. Who is there that respects the wretch who 
has no respect for others ? whose only life is to pull other 
men's characters to pieces, and whose death would be sure 
to follow the universal reign of truth and goodness. I have 
seen, however, this disease before it has broken out and 
assumed its basest shape. I have seen men, and women too — 
let me lay a stress on that second word, for there is a stress 
sometimes needed there, though I would not be too severe — 
men and women who seem to have a propensity rather to 
observe that which is evil in another than that which is good. 
Now, I will put this home question. My friend, it is all very 
well for you to have those eyes so sharp, and to wear those 
magnifying glasses for other people, but "are there not with 
•you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God ?" What 
about your own life ? I will tell you something about it. 
Whatever you think of other people is true of yourself; that 
is an invariable rule. We always measure other people's 
corn with our own bushel, and if you think you find other 
people's corn gritty, the dirt was originally in your own. 
Depend upon it, that your judgment of others will be God's 
judgment of you, for with what measure ye mete the same 
shall be measured to you again. 

Butcher. 

Then see the butcher. How doth the beast speak to him? 
He sees the lamb almost lick his knife, and the bullock goes 



ii8 IVrr A^D WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

unconsciously to the slaughter. How might he think every 
time^ that he smites the unconscious animal, (who knows 
nothing of death,) of his own doom? Are we not, all of us 
who are without Christ, fattening for the slaughter? Are we 
not more foolish than the bullock, for doth not wicked man 
follow his executioner, and walk a/ter his own destroyer 
unto the very chambers of hell ? When we see a drunkard 
pursuing his drunkenness, or an unchaste man running in 
the way of licentiousness, is he not as an ox going to the 
slaughter, until a dart smite him through the liver? Hath 
not God sharpened his knife and made ready his ax, that the 
fatling of this earth may be killed, when He shall say to the 
fowls of the air and the beasts of the field : "Behold, I have 
made a feast of vengeance for you, and ye shall feast upon 
the blood of the slain, and make yourselves drunken with 
the streams thereof! " Ay, butcher, there is a lecture for 
you in your trade, and your business may reproach you. 

Builder. 

Are you busy in building all day long, laying the stone 
upon its fellow and the mortar in its crevice ? Then remem- 
ber thou art building for eternity, too. Oh, that thou mayest 
thyself be built upon a good foundation 1 Oh, that thou 
mayest build thereon, not wood, hay or stubble, but gold, 
and silver, and precious stones, and things that will abide 
the fire ! Take care, man, lest thou shouldest be God's scaf- 
fold, lest thou shouldest be used on earth to be a scaffolding 
for building His church, and when His church is built, thou 
shouldest be cast down and burned up with fire unquench- 
able. Take heed that thou art built upon the rock, and not 
upon the sand, and that the vermillion cement of the Savior's 
precious blood unites thee to the foundation of the building, 
and to every stone thereof. 

The Excuses of Sinners. 

But one cries : "I shall not plead guilty, for though I am 
well aware that I have not continued • in all things which are 



SERMON EXTRACTS. "9 

written in the book of the law,' yet I have done the best I 
could." That is a lie — before God a falsehood. You have not! 
Yon have not done the best you could. There have been many 
occasions upon which you might have done better. Will 
that young man dare to tell me that he is doing the best he 
can now ? That he cannot refrain from laughing in the house 
of God? It may be possible that it is hard for him to do so, 
but it is just possible he could, if he pleased, refrain from 
insulting his Maker to His face. Surely we have none of us 
done the best we could. At every period, at every time, 
there have been opportunities of escape from temptation. 
If we had had no freedom to escape from sin, there might 
have been some excuse for it; but there have been turning 
points in our history when we might have decided for right 
or for wrong, but when we have chosen the evil and have 
eschewed the good, and have turned into that path which 
leadeth unto hell. 



Personal Experience. 

First, then, here is what they are to tell. It is to 
be a story q>{ personal experience. "Go home to thy friends 
and tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee, 
and hath had compassion on thee." You are not to repair 
to your houses and forthwith begin to preach. That you are 
not commanded to do. You are not to begin to take up 
doctrinal subjects, and expatiate on them, and endeavor to 
bring persons to your peculiar views and sentiments. You 
are not to go home with sundry doctrines you have lately 
learned and try to teach these. At least, you are not com- 
manded so to do. You may, if you please, and none shall 
hinder you ; but you are to go home and tell not what you 
have believed, but what you havey<?/// what you really know 
to be your own; not what great things you have read, but 
what great things the Lord hath do7ie for you; not alone 
what you have seen done in the great congregation, and 
how great sinners have turned to God, but what the Lord 
has done for you. And mark this : There is never a more 
interesting story than that which a man tells about himself. 



I20 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

Those who Do Not Profess to be Godly. 

It is now time for me to tell the openly ungodly what is 
his real state. You have been more than a little proud of 
your honesty, and looking down upon certain professors 
of religion, you have said, "Ah! I make no such pretenses 
as they do ; I am honest, I am." Friend, you cannot have a 
greater abhorrence of hypocrites than, I have; if you can 
find a fair chance of laughing at them, pray do so. If by 
any means you can stick pins into their windbags, and let 
the gas of their profession out, pray do so. I try to do a 
little of it in my way ; do you do the same? You and I are 
agreed in this, I hope, in heartily hating anything like sham 
and falsehood ; but if you begin to hold your head up, and 
think yourself so very superior because you make no profes- 
sion, I must take you down a little by reminding you that it 
is no credit to a thief that he makes no profession of being 
honest, and it is not thought to be exceedingly honorable to 
a man that makes no profession of speaking the truth. For 
the fact is, that a man who does not profess to be honest is 
a professional thief; and he who does not claim to speak the 
truth is an acknowledged liar. Thus, in escaping one horn 
you are thrown upon another; you miss the rock, but run 
upon the quicksand. You are a confessed and avowed neg- 
lecter of God, a professed despiser of the great salvation, 
an acknowledged disbeliever in the Christ of God. When 
our Government at any time arrests persons suspected of 
Fenianism, they have no difficulty about those gentlemen 
who glory in wearing the green uniform and flaunting the 
big feather. "Come along," says the constable, "you are 
the man, for you wear the regimentals of a rebel." Even so 
when the angel of Justice arrests the enemies of the Lord, 
he will have no difficulty in accusing and arresting you, for 
laying his hand upoii your shoulder, he will say: "You 
wear the regimentals of an enemy of God ; you plainly and 
unblushingly acknowledge that you do not fear God, nor 
trust in His salvation." 



SERMON EXTRACTS. 121 

A Faithful Friend. 

Faithfulness to us in our faults is a certain sign of fidelity 
in a friend. You may depend upon that man who will tell 
you of your faults in a kind and considerate manner. Fawn- 
ing hypocrites, insiduous flatterers, are the sweepings and 
offal of friendship. They are but the parasites upon that 
noble tree. But true friends put enough trust in you to tell 
you openly of you faults. Give me for a friend a man who 
will speak honestly of me before my face ; who will not tell 
first one neighbor, and then another, but who will come 
straight to my house and say : *'Sir, I feel there is such and 
such a thing in you, which, as my brother, I must tell you of." 
That man is a true friend ; he has proved himself to be so; 
for we never get any praise for telling people of their faults ; 
we rather hazard their dislike ; a man will sometimes thank 
you for it, but he does not often like you any the better. 

Grit. 

It is said by an old writer, that in the olden times men 
used to take care of their houses, but now the houses take 
care of the men ; that they used to eat off oaken porringers, 
and then they were oaken men ; but now they are willow- 
men, can bend any how ; they are earthenware men, which 
can be dashed to pieces. Scarcely in business, in politics, or 
in religion, have you got a man. You see a lot of things, 
which are called men, who turn the way the wind blows. I 
pray God to send a few men with what the Americans call 
"grit" in them; men, who when they know a thing to be 
right, will not turn away, or turn aside, or stop ; men who 
will persevere all the more because there are difficulties to 
meet or foes to encounter ; who stand all the moi e true to their 
Master because they are opposed ; who, the more they are 
thrust into the fire, the hotter they become ; who, just like 
the bow, the further the string is drawn the more power- 
fully it sends forth its arrows, and so the more they are trod- 
den upon, the more mighty will they become in the cause of 
truth against error. 



122 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

The Human Heart. 

If, then, the all-seeing eye of God takes in at one glance 
the wide regions of death, and wide they are, wide enough 
to startle any man who shall seek to range them through — if I 
say, with one glance God seeth death and seeth hell through, 
with all its bottomless depths, with all its boundlessness of 
misery, surely, then, he is quite able to behold all the actions 
of the little thing called man's heart. Suppose a man so. 
wise as to be able to know the wants of a nation and to 
remember the feelings of myriads of men, you cannot sup- 
pose it difficult for him to know the actions of his own 
family and to understand the emotions of his own house- 
hold. If the man is able to stretch his arm over a great 
sphere, and to say: "lam monarch of all this," surely he 
shall be able to control the less. He who in his wisdom can 
walk through centuries, shall not say that he is ignorant of 
the history of a year ; he who can dive into the depths of 
science, and understand the history of the whole world 
from its creation, is not to be alarmed by some small riddle 
that happens at his own door. No, the God who seeth 
death and hell seeth our hearts, for they are far less 
extensive. 

Hypocrisy. 

This age is full of shams. Pretence never stood in so emi- 
nent a position as it does at the present hour. There be few, 
I fear, who love the naked truth ; we can scarce endure it in 
our houses ; you would scarcely trade with a man who abso- 
lutely stated it. If you walked through the streets of Lon- 
don, you might imagine that all the shops were built of 
marble, and that all the doors were made of mahogany and 
woods of the rarest kinds ; and yet you soon discover that 
there is scarce a piece of any o'f these precious fabrics to be 
found anywhere, but that everything is grained, and painted, 
and varnished. I find no fault with this, except that it is an 
outward type of an inward evil that exists. As it is in our 
streets, so it is everywhere ; graining, painting and gilding 
are at an enormous premium. Counterfeit has at length 



SERMOiV EXTRACTS. 123 

attained to such an eminence that it is with the utmost diffi- 
culty that you can detect it. The counterfeit so near ap- 
proacheth to the genuine, that the eye of wisdom itself needs 
to be enlightened before she can discern the difference. 
Specially is this the case in religious matters. There was 
once an age of intolerant bigotry, when every man was 
weighed in the balance, and if he was not precisely up to the 
orthodox standard of the day, the fire devoured him ; but in 
this age of charity, and of most proper charity, we are very 
apt to allow the counterfeit to pass current, and to imagine 
that outward show is really as beneficial as inward reality. 
If ever there was a time when it was needful to say, "Beware 
ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy," it is 
now. The minister may cease to preach this doctrine in the 
days of persecution; when the faggots are blazing, and when 
the rack is in full operation, few men will be hypocrites. 
These are the keen detectors of impostors ; suffering, and 
pain, and death, for Christ's sake, are not to be endured by 
mere pretenders. But in this silken age, when to be religious 
is to be respectable, when to follow Christ is to be honored, 
and when godliness itself has become gain, it is doubly 
necessary that the minister should cry aloud, and lift up his 
voice like a trumpet against this prevailing sin, "The leaven 
of the Pharisees, which is sin." 

Absurdity of Indecision. 

And is it not true, that a man who is neither one thing or 
another is in a most absurd position ? Let him go among 
the worldlings ; they laugh under their sleeve, and say, 
"This is one of the Exeter Hall saints," or, "This is one of 
the elect " Let him go among Christian people, those that 
are saints, and they say, "Howa man can be so inconsistent, 
how he can come into our midst one day, and the next be 
found in such and such society, we cannot tell." Methinks 
even the devil himself must laugh at such a man in scorn. 
"There," says he, "I am every thing that is bad ; I do some- 
times pretend to be an angel of light, and put on that garb ; 
but you do really excel me in every respect, for I do it to get 



124 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

something by it, but you do not get anything by it. You do 
not have the pleasure of this world, and you do not have the 
pleasures of religion either; you have the fears of religion 
without its hopes ; you are afraid to do wrong, and yet you 
have no hope of heaven ; you have the duties of religion 
without the joys ; you have to do just as religious people do, 
and yet there is no heart in the matter ; you have to sit down 
and see the table all spread before you, and then you have 
not power to eat a single morsel of the precious dainties of 
the gospel." 

The Insincere Man. 

Sometimes Saul was among prophets, easily turned into a 
prophet, and then afterwards among the witches ; sometimes 
in one place and then another, and insincere in everything. 
How many such we have in every Christian assembly ; men 
who are very easily molded. Say what you please to them, 
they always agree with you. They have affectionate disposi- 
tions, very likely a tender conscience ; but then the con- 
science is so remarkably tender, that when touched it seems 
to give, and you are afraid to probe deeper ; it heals as soon 
as it is wounded. I think I used the very singular compari- 
son once before, which I must use again ; there are some 
men who seem to have India-rubber hearts. If you do but 
touch them, there is an imprescion made at once, but then it 
is of no use, it soon restores itself to its original character. 
You may press them whichever way you wish, they are so 
elastic you can always effect your purpose, but then they are 
not fixed in character and soon return to be what they were 
before. 

Friendship. 

Cicero has well said, 'Friendship is the only thing in the 
world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are 
agreed," Friendship seems as necessary an element of a 
comfortable existence in this world as fire and water, or 
even air itself. A man may drag along a miserable exist- 
ence in proud solitary dignity, but his life is scarce life ; it is 
nothing but an existence, the tree of life being stripped of 



SERMON EXTRACTS. 125 

the leaves of hope and the fruits of joy. He who would be 
happy here must have friends ; and he who would be happy 
hereafter, must, above all things, find a friend in the world 
to come, in the person of God, the father of His people. 

Friendship, however, though very pleasing and exceed- 
ingly blessed, has been the cause of the greatest misery to 
men when it has been unworthy and unfaithful ; for just in 
proportion as a good friend is sweet, a false friend is full of 
bi'.terness. "A faithless friend is sharper than an adder's 
tooth." It is sweet to repose in some one; but O ! how 
bitter to have that support snapped, and to receive a 
grievous fall as the effect of your confidence. Fidelity is 
an absolute necessary in a true friend. We cannot rejoice 
in men unless they will stand faithful to us. Solomon de- 
clares that " there is a friend that sticketh closer than a 
brother." That friend, I suppose, he never found in the 
pomps and vanities of the world. He had tried them all, 
but he found them empty ; he passed through all their joys, 
but he found them "vanity of vanities." Poor Savage spoke 
from sad experience when he said : 

"You'll find the friendship of the world a show ! 
Mere outward show ! 'Tis like the harlot's tears, 
The statesman promise, a false patriot's zeal, 
Full of fair seeming, but delusion all," 

And so for the most part they are. The world's friendship 
is ever brittle trust to it, and you have trusted a robber, rely 
upon it. and you have leaned upon a sham ; aye, worse than 
that, upon a spear, which shall pierce you to the soul with 
agony ! 

Living for Self. 

There is a minister; when he first began his ministry he 
would say, "God is my witness ; I have but one object ; that 
I may free my skirts from the blood of every one of my 
hearers, that I may preach the gospel faithfully and honor 
my Master." In a little time, tempted by Satan, he changed 
his tone and talks like this : "I must keep my congregation 
up. If I preach such hard doctrine they won't come. Did 
not one of the newspapers criticise me, and did not some of 



126 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

my people go away from me because of it ? I must mind 
what I am at. I must keep this thing going. I must look 
out a little sharper and prune my speech down. I must 
adopt a little gentler style, or preach a new-fashioned doc- 
trine ; for I must keep my popularity up. What is to become 
cf me if I go down? People will say, 'Up like a rocket, 
down like the stick ;' and then shall all my enemies laugh." 
Ah, when once a man begins to care so much as a snap of 
the finger about the world, it is all over with him. If he can 
go to his pulpit and say : "I have got a message to deliver ; 
and whether they will hear or whether they will not hear, I 
will deliver it as God puts it into my mouth ; I will not 
change the dot of an z, or the cross of a /, for the biggest 
man that lives, or to bring in the mightiest congregation that 
ever sat at a minister's feet" —that man is mighty. He does 
not let human judgments move him, and he will move the 
world. 

Losses. ' 

Losses, too, are frequently the means God uses to fetch 
home his wandering sheep ; like fierce dogs, they worry the 
wanderers back to the shepherd. There is no making lions 
tame if they are too well fed ; they must be brought down 
from their great strength, and their stomachs must be low- 
ered a bit, and then they will submit to the tamer's hand; 
and often have we seen the Christian rendered obedient to 
his Lord's will by straightness of bread arid hard labor. 
When rich and increased in goods, many professors carry 
their heads much too loftily, and speak much too boastfully. 
Like David, they boast: "My mountain standeth fast; it 
shall never be moved." When the Christian groweth 
wealthy, is in good repute, hath good health, and a happy 
family, he too often admits Mr. Carnal Security- to feast at 
his table. If he be a true child of God, there is a rod pre- 
paring for him. 

True Parentage of Love. 

But how is this to be ? How is the world to be brought 
back? How is it to be restored? We answer, the reason 



SERMON EXTRACTS. 



127I 



why there was this orignal harmony between earth and 
heaven was because there was love between them twain, and 
our great reason for hoping that there shall be at last re- 
established an undiscordant harmony between heaven and 
earth is simply this, that God hath already manifested His 
love towards us, and that in return, hearts touched by His 
grace do even now love Him ; and when they shall be mul- 
tiplied, and love re-established, thea shall harmony be 
complete. 

Want of Observation. 

But we do not observe God's hand as much as we should. 
Our good puritanic forefathers, when it rained, used to say, 
that God had unstopped the bottles of heaven. When it 
rains nowadays, we think the clouds have become condensed. 
If they had a field of hay cut, they used to plead of the 
Lord that he would bid the sun shine. We, perhaps, are 
wiser, as we think ; and we consider it hardly worth while to 
pray about such things, thinking they will come in the course 
of nature. They believed that God was in every storm ; 
nay, in every cloud of dust. They used to speak of ,a 
present God in every thing ; but we speak of such things as 
laws of nature, as if laws were ever anything, except there 
was some one to carry them out, and some secret power to 
set the whole machinery in motion. We do not get our 
assurance, because we do not observe enough. 



Men at All Times Alike. 

The passage tells us nothing about the statue of men's 
bodies, but as far as they are spiritually concerned the pho- 
tograph which Elihu took is the portrait of many of those 
who are brought to Jesus now. Reading the passage over, 
we find that men in those times needed converting ; for they 
were deaf to God's voice; they were obstinate in evil 
purposes, and puffed up with pride. They needed chasten- 
ing to arouse them to thought, and required sore distress to 
make them cry out for mercy. They were loth to say, '*I 



128 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEOiW 

have sinned," and were not at all inclined to prayer. Noth- 
ing but sharp discipline could bring them to their senses, 
and even then they rieeded to be born again. Men in those 
days were sinful, and yet proud ; sinful self and righteous 
self were both in power ; it was one part of conversion to 
withdraw them from their purposes of sin, and another part 
of their conversion to "hide pride" from them. Though 
they were sinful, they thought that they were righteous, and 
though they were condemned by the law of God they still 
entertained the fond hope that they should by their own 
merits obtain the favor of the Most High. They were then, 
as they are now, poor as poverty, and yet proud of their 
wealth, Publicans in sin, and yet Pharisees in boasting. 



Henry of Navarre. 

Notice the blessing : ''And they shall be to me a people.'*^ 
All flesh belongs to God in a certain sense. All men are His 
by right of creation, and He hath an infinite sovereignty 
over them. But He looks down upon the sons of men, and 
He selects some, and He says : "These shall be my peculiar 
people." When the King of Navarre was fighting for his 
throne, the writer, who hymns the battle, says : 

"He looked upon the foemen, and his glance was stern and high ; 
He looked upon his people, and the tear was in his eye." 

And when he saw some of the French in arms against him — 

"Then out spoke gentle Henry, ' No Frenchman is my foe ; 
Down, down with every foreigner, but kt your brethren go.' " 

The king had an eye to his people even when they were in 
rebellion against him, and he had a different thought towards 
them from what he had towards others. "Let them go," he 
seemed to say, "they are my people." So, mark you, in the 
great battles of strifes of this world, when God lets loose 
the dread artillery of heaven. His glance is stern upon His 
enemies, but the tear is in His eye towards His people. He 
is always tender towards them. "Spare my people," saith 
He, and the angels interpose lest those chosen ones should 
dash their feet against a stone. 



CHEQUE BOOK, 129 



CHEQUE BOOK, 



"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, 
and thou shalt bruise his heel." — Gen. iii : 15. 

This is the first promise to fallen man. It con- 
tains the whole gospel, and the essence of the 
covenant of grace. It has been in great measure 
fulfilled. The seed of the woman, even our Lord 
Jesus, was bruised in his heel, and a terrible 
bruising it was. How terrible will be the final 
bruising of the serpent's head! This was virtuall}- 
done when Jesus took away sin, vg.nquished death, 
and broke the power of Satan; but it awaits a still 
fuller accomplishment at our Lord's second advent 
and in the day of judgment. To us the promise 
stands as prophecy that we shall be afflicted by 
the powers of evil in our lower nature, and thus 
bruised in our heel; but we shall triumph in 
Christ who sets his foot on the old serpent's head. 
Throughout this year we may have to learn the 
first part of this promise by experience, through 
the temptations of the devil, and the unkindness 



130 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

of the ungodly, who are his seed. They may so 
bruise us that we may limp with our sore heel ; but 
let us grasp the second part of the text, and we 
shall not be dismayed. By faith let us rejoice that 
we shall still reign m Christ Jesus, the woman's 
seed. 

"When thou shall make his soul an offering for sin, he 
shall see his seed." — Isa liii : lo 

Our Lord Jesus has not died in vain. His death 
was sacrificial ; he died as our substitute, because 
death was the penalty of our sins, and because 
his substitution was accepted of God. He has 
saved those from whom he made his soul a sacri- 
fice. By death he became like the corn of wheat, 
which bringeth forth much fruit. There must be 
a succession of children to Jesus ; he is "the 
Father of the everlasting age." He shall say, 
'^Behold, I and the children whom thou hast given 
me." 

A man is honored in his sons, and Jesus hath 
his quiver full of these arrows ol the mighty. A 
man is represented in his children, and so Is the 
Christ in Christians. In his seed a man's life 
seems to be prolonged and extended ; and so is the 
life of Jesus continued m believers. 

Jesus lives, for he sees his seed. He fixes his 



CHEQUE BOOK. 131, 

eye on us, he delights in us, he recognizes us in 
the fruit of his soul travail. Let us be glad that 
our Lord does not fail to enjoy the result of his 
dread sacrifice, and that he will never cease to 
feast his eyes upon the harvest of his death. 
Those eyes which once wept for us, are now 
viewing us with pleasure. Yes, he looks upon 
those who are looking unto him. Our eyes meet ! 
What a joy IS this! 

•'When I see the blood, I will pass over you." — Ex. xii : 13. 

My own sight of the precious blood is for my 
comfort; but it is the Lord's sight of it which 
secures my safety. Even when I am unable to 
behold it, the Lord looks at it, and passes over me 
because of it. If I am not so much at ease as I 
ought to be, because my faith is dim, 3^et I am 
equally safe, because the Lord's eye is not dim, 
and He sees the blood of the great sacrifice with 
steady gaze. What joy is this! 

The Lord sees the deep inner meaning, the infi- 
nite fulness of all that is meant by the death of 
His dear Son. He sees it with restful memory of 
justice satisfied, and all His matchless attributes 
glorified. He beheld creation m its progress, and 
said; *^It is very good;" but what does He say of 



132 



IVIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 



redemption in its completeness? What does He 
say of the obedience even unto death of His well- 
beloved Son? None can tell His delight in Jesus, 
His rest in the sweet Savior which Jesus presented 
when He offered Himself without spot unto God. 
Now rest we m calm security. We have God's 
sacrifice and God's word to create in us a sense of 
perfect security. He will, He must, pass over us, 
because He spared not our glorious substitute. 
Justice joins hands with love to provide everlast- 
ing salvation for all the blood-besprinkled ones. 

" If ye abide in me> and my words abide in you, ye shall 
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. "-John xv: 7. 

Of necessity we must be m Christ to live unto 
him, and we must abide in him to be able to claim 
the largesse of this promise from him. To abide 
in Jesus is never to quit him for another love, or 
another object; but to remain in living, loving, 
conscious, willing union with him. The branch is 
not only ever near the stem, but ever receiving life 
and fruitfulness from it. All true believers abide 
in Christ in a sense; but there is a higher meaning 
and this we must know before we gain unlimited 
power at the throne. '*Ask what ye will" is for 
Enochs who walk with God, for Johns who lie in 
the Lord's bosom, for those whose union with 
Christ leads to constant communion. 



CHEQUE BOOK. 133 

The heart must remain in love; the mind must 
be rooted in faith; the hope must be cemented to 
the Word; the whole man must be joined unto the 
Lord, or else it would be dangerous to trust us with 
power in prayer. The carte blanche can only be 
given to one whose very life is " Not I, but Christ 
liveth in me." O you who break your fellowship, 
what power 3'ou lose ! If you would be mighty in 
your pleadings, the Lord himself must abide in 
you, and you in him. 

"And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going- 
out." — Deut. xxxiii : 18. 

The blessings of the tribes are ours; for we are 
the true Israel who worship God in the spirit, and 
have no confidence in the flesh. Zebulun is to 
rejoice because Jehovah will bless his 'Agoing out;" 
we also see a promise for ourselves lying latent in 
this benediction. When we go out we will look 
out for occasions of joy. 

We go out to travel, and the providence of God 
is our convoy. We go out to emigrate, and the 
Lord is with us both on land and sea. We go out 
as missionaries, and Jesus saith, **Lo, I am with 
you unto the end of the world." We go out day 
by day to our labor, and we may do so with 
pleasure, for God will be with us from morn till eve« 



134 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

A fear sometimes creeps over us when starting, 
for we know not what we may meet with ; but this 
blessing may serve us right well as a word of good 
cheer. As we pack up for moving, let us put this 
verse into our traveling trunk ; let us drop it into 
our hearts, and keep it there; yea, let us lay it on 
our tongue to make us sing. Let us weigh anchor 
with a song, or jump into the carriage with a 
psalm. Let us belong to the rejoicing tribe, and 
in our every movement praise the Lord with joyful 
hearts. 

"Be careful for nothing ; but in everything- by prayer and 
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made 
known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all 
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through 
Christ Jesus." — Phil, iv : 6,7. 

No care, but all prayer. No anxiety, but much 

joyful communion with God. . Carry your desires 

to the Lord of your life, the guardian of your 

soul. Go to him with two portions of prayer, and 

one of fragrant praise. Do not pray doubtfully, 

but thankfully. Consider that you have your 

petitions, and, therefore, thank God for his Grace. 

He is giving you grace, give him thanks. Hide 

nothing. Allow no want to be rankling in your 

bosom; *'make known your requests." Run not 

to man. Go only to your God, the Father of 

Jesus, who loves you in him. 



CHEQUE BOOK. 135 

This shall bring you God's own peace. You 
shall not be able to understand the peace which 
you shall enjoy. It will enfold you in its infinite 
embrace. Heart and mind, through Christ Jesus, 
shall be steeped in a sea of rest. Come life or 
death, poverty, pain, slander, you shall dwell in 
Jesus above every ruffling wind or darkening 
cloud. Will you not obey this dear command ? 

Yes, Lord, I do believe thee ; but I beseech thee 
help mine unbelief. 

"When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his 
enemies to be at peace with him." — Prov. xvi : 7. 

I must see that my w-ays please the Lord. Even 

then I shall have enemies; and, perhaps, all the 

more certainly because I endeavored to do that 

which is right. But w^hat a promise this is ! The 

Lord will make the w^-ath of men to praise Him, 

and abate it so that it shall not distress me. He 

can constrain an enemy to desist from harming 

me, even though he has a mind to do so. This 

He did wdth Laban, w^ho pursued Jacob, but did 

not dare touch him; or he can subdue the wrath 

of the enemy, and make him friendly, as He did 

with Esau, w^ho met Jacob in a brotherly manner, 

though Jacob had dreaded that he would smite 

him and his family with the sword. The Lord 



136 WIT AND WISDOAf-OF SPURGEON, 

can also convert a furious adversary into a brother 
in Christ, and a fellow-worker, as he did Saul of 
Tarsus. Oh, that he would do this in every case 
where a persecuting spirit appears! 

Happy is the man whose enemies are made to 
be to him what the lions were to Daniel in the 
den, quiet and companionable! When I meet 
death, who is called the last enemy, I pray that I 
may be at peace. Only let my great care be to 
please the Lord in all things. Oh, for faith and 
holiness; for these are a pleasure unto the Most 
High! 

"The Lord thy God will turn thy captivity." — Deut. 
XXX : 3. 

God's own people may sell themselves into cap- 
tivity by sin. A very bitter fruit is this, of an 
exceeding bitter root. What a bondage it is when 
the Child of God is sold under sin, held in chains 
by Satan, deprived of his liberty, robbed of his 
power in prayer and his delight in the Lord! L-^t 
us watch that we come not into such bondage; but 
if this has already happened to us, let us by no 
means despair. 

But we cannot be held in slavery forever. The 
Lord Jesus .has paid too high a price for our re- 
demption to leave us in the enemy's hand. The 



CHEQUE BOOK. 137 

way to freedom is ''Return unto the Lord thy 
God." Where we first found salvation we shall 
find it again. At the foot of Christ's cross, con- 
fessing sin, we shall find pardon and deliverance. 
Moreover, the Lord will have us obey his voice 
according to all that he has commanded us, and 
we must do this with all our heart, and all our soul 
and then our captivity shall end. 

Often depression of spirit and great misery of 
soul are removed as soon as we quit our idols and 
bow ourselves to obedience before the living God. 
We need not be captives. We may return to Zion's 
citizenship, and that speedily. Lord, turn our 
captivity ! 

"For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth ; the poor 
also, and him that hath no helper." — Ps. Ixxii : 12. 

The needy cries ; what else can he do? His 
cry is heard of God; what else need he do? Let 
the needy reader take to crying at once, for this 
will be his wisdom. Do not cry in the ears of 
friends, for even if they can help you, it is only 
because the Lord enables them. The nearest way 
is to go straight to God, and let your cry come up 
before him. Straight-forward makes the best run- 
ner; run to the Lord, and not to secondary causes. 

''Alas!" you cry, "I have no friend or helper." 



138 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

So much the better; 3^ou can rely upon God in 
both capacities — as without supplies and without 
helpers. Make your double need your double 
plea. Even for temporal mercies you may wait 
upon God, for he careth for his children in these 
temporary concerns. As for spiritual necessities, 
which are the heaviest of all, the Lord will hear 
your cry, and will deliver you and supply you. 

O, poor friend, try your rich God. O, helpless 
one, lean on his help. He has never failed vie^ 
and I am sure he will never fail yoii. Come as a 
beggar, and God will not refuse your help. Come 
with no plea but his grace. Jesus is King, will he 
let you perish of want? What! Did you forget 
this? 

"They shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them 
afraid." — Zeph. iii : 13. 

Yesterday we thought of the afflicted and poor 
people whom the Lord left to be a living seed in a 
dead world. The prophet says of such that they 
shall not work inquity nor speak lies. So that 
while they have neither rank nor riches to guard 
them, they were also quite unable to use those 
weapons in which the Avicked place so much reli- 
ance ; they could neither defend themselves by sin 
nor by subtlety. 



CHEQUE BOOK. 139 

What then? Would they be destroyed? By no 
means. They would both feed and rest, and be 
not merely free from danger, but even quite from 
fear and evil. Sheep are very feeble creatures, 
and wolves are terrible enemies ; 3^et, at this hour, 
sheep are more numerous than wolves, and the 
cause of the sheep are always winning, while the 
cause of the wolves is always declining. One day 
flocks of sheep will cover the plains, and not a 
wolf will be left. The fact is that sheep have a 
shepherd, and this gives them provender, protec- 
tection and peace. ^'None^^ — which means not 
one, whether in human or diabolical form — '^shall 
make them afraid." Who shall terrify the Lord's 
flock when he is near ? We lie down in green 
pastures, for Jesus himself is food and rest to our 
souls. 

"And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy 
might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Mid- 
ianites ; have not I sent thee ? " — ^Judges vi : 14. 

What a look was that which the Lord gave to 
Gideon? He looked him out of his discourage- 
ments into holy bravery. If our look to the Lord 
saves us, what will not his look at us do? Lord, 
look on me this day, and nerve me for its duties 
and conflicts. 



140 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

What a word was this which Jehovah spake to 
Gideon! *'Go." He must not hesitate. He might 
have answered, *'What, go in all this weakness? " 
But the Lord put that word out of court by saying, 
*'Go in this thy might." The Lord had looked 
might into him, and he had now nothing to do but 
to use it, and save Israel by smiting the Midianites. 
It may be that the Lord has more to do by me than 
I ever dreamed of. If he has looked upon me he 
has made me strong. Let me by faith exercise the 
power with which he has entrusted me. He never 
bids me *'idle away my time in this my might." 
Far from ^t. I must ''go," because he strengthens 
me. 

What a question is that which the Lord puts to 
me even as he put it to Gideon! ^'Have not I sent 
thee?" Yes, Lord, thou has sent me, and I will 
go in thy strength. At thy command I go, and 
going, I am assured that thou wilt conquer by me. 

**I will save her that halteth." — Zeph. iii : 19. 

There are plenty of these lame ones, both male 
and female. You may meet *'her that halteth" 
twenty times in an hour. They are in the right 
road, and exceedingly anxious to run in it with 
diligence, but they are lame, and make a sorry 



CHEQUE BOOK. ^41 

walk of it. On the heavenly road there are so 
many cripples. It may be that they say in their 
hearts: *' What will become of us? Sin will over- 
take us. Satan will throw us down. Ready to 
halt is our name and our nature; the Lord can 
never make good soldiers of us, nor even nimble 
messengers to go on His errands. "Well, well, He 
will save us, and that is no small thing. He says: 
*I will save her that halteth.' In saving us He 
will greatly glorify Himself. Everybody will ask: 
' How came this lame woman to run the race and 
win the crown?' And then the praise will all be 
given to almighty grace." 

Lord, though I halt in faith, in prayer, in praise, 
in service, and in patience, save me, I beseech 
thee. Only Thou canst save such a cripple as I 
am. Lord, let me not perish because I am among 
the hindmost, but gather up by Thy grace the 
slowest of Thy pilgrims — even me. Behold he 
hath said it shall be so; and therefore, like Jacob, 
prevailing in prayer, I go forward though my 
sinew be shrunk. 

"But if the priest buy any soul with his money, he shall 
eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they shall eat of 
his meat. — Liv. xxii : ii. 

Strangers, sojourners, and servants upon hire 

were not to eat of holy things. It is so in spiritual 



142 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

matters still. But classes were free at the sacred 
table, those who were bought with the priest's 
money, and those who were born into the priest's 
house. Bought and born, these were the two 
indisputable proofs of a right to holy things. 

Bought. Our great High Priest has bought with 
a price all those who put their trust in him. They 
are his absolute property — altogether the Lord's. 
Not for what they are in themselves, but for their 
owner's sake they are admitted unto the same 
privileges which he himself enjoys, and "they 
shall eat of his meat." He has meat to eat which 
worldlings know not of. "Because ye belong to 
Christ," therefore, shall ye share with your Lord. 

Born, This is an equally sure way to privilege; 
if born in the priest's house we take our place with 
the rest of the family. Regeneration makes us 
fellow-heirs, and of the same body ; and, there- 
fore, the peace, the joy, the glory, which the 
Father has given to Christ, Christ has given to us. 
Redemption and regeneration have given us a 
double claim to the divine permit of this promise. 

"For his anger endureth but a moment; in this favor is 
life ; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the 
morning." — Ps. xxx : 5. 

A moment under our Father's anger seems very 

long, and yet it is but a moment after all. If we 



CHEQUE BOOK, 143 

grieve his spirit we cannot look for his smile ; but 
he is a God ready to pardon, and he soon puts 
aside all remembrance of our faults. When we 
faint and are ready to die because of his frown, 
his favor puts new life into us. 

This verse has another note of the semi-quaver 
kind. Our weeping night soon turns into joyous 
day. Brevity is the mark of mercy in the hour of 
the chastisement of believers. The Lord loves 
not to use the rod on his chosen ; he gives a blow 
or two, and all is over; yea, and the life and the 
joy which follow the anger and the weeping, more 
than make amends for the salutary sorrow. 

Come, my heart, begin thy hallelujahs! Weep 
not all through the night, but wipe thine eyes in 
anticipation of the morning. These tears are dews 
which mean us as much good as the sunbeams of 
the morrow. Tears clear the eyes for the sight of 

God in His grace; and make the vision of His 
favor more precious. A night of sorrow supplies 
those shades of the picture by which the high 
lights are brought out with distinctness. All is 
well. 



144 ^J'T AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. * 



SALT-CELLARS; 

A Collection of Proverbs, Together With 
Homely Notes Thereon. In two Vol- 
umes A TO L AND M TO Z. 



"These three things go to the making of a proverb 
shortness, sense and salt." 



SALT-CELLARS. 

A bad dog sees not the thief. 

We have plenty of bad dogs nowadays. Ministers 
will not see the error which abounds ; statesmen wink 
hard at vice ; and religious people sleep while satan 
plunders the church. 

A bad dog may get a good bone. 

Often very unworthy men gain fortunes, offices 
and honors. This world is not the place of rewards 
and punishments, and so it happens that satan's bul- 
locks often feed in the fatte'st pastures. 

A bad motive makes a good action bad. 

What appears good enough in itself has often- been 
polluted by the motive. It might be well to kiss the 
Lord Jesus, but the motive of Judas made a kiss 
a crime. 



SAL T-CEL LA RS. i^.. 

A bad padlock invites a picklock. 

Carelessness on the part of owners may prove a 
temptation to servants and others. We should not put 
theft into their minds by want of proper care. 

A bird that cannot be shot may be snared. 

Dispositions vary, and satan knows how to fit his 
temptations to our temperament. He who will not fall 
into open sin may be seduced into secret unbelief and 
pride. 

A bitten child is afraid of a stuffed dog. 

The same as "a burnt child dreads the fire," or "a 
scalded cat dreads cold water." It were well if more 
who have suffered from sin would have a solemn fear 
of it, and henceforth shun it. 

A blustering fellow is alwaj^s a coward. 

This observation has come down through long ages 
of observers. It is a rule to which there are very few 
exceptions. ]\Ir. Bluster is soon in a fluster. 

A braying donkey may spoil a grazing donkey's 
business. 

A noisy person may prevent a neighbor from fol- 
lowing his work with success, and may even cause a 
prejudice against others in the same line who are quiet 
and unassuming. 

A cat must not always keep her back up. 

If now and then a man has to assert himself, and 
be on the warpath, let him come to his usual level as 
soon as possible. 

A cat on hot bricks is all in a hurry. 

And so is a person when he is out of his element. 
Many a man at church, or in court, or at a prayer- 
meeting, or by a dying bed, is very much in this un> 
happy condition. 



146 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

A clever head is all the better for a close mouth. 

Then the man will «<:/ rather than gossip ; and be 
will not disclose his plans before the proper time fo;' 
carrying them out. 

A cloudy morning brings a clear day. 

We may begin a work with trouble, and yet the 
business may bring us great joy as it proceeds. 

A cow's tail droops down, but never drops o£f. 

Many institutions look as if they would fall, but 
they have not done so yet, and they will not do so for 
many a year. 

A cracked bell should not be rung. 

It would be well if we could keep foolish people 
quiet, but who can? If they were not cracked you 
might quiet them, but they have not wit enough to 
hold their tongues. 

A creaking door hangs long on its hinges. 

Persons who are usually ill often live on for many 
years, while robust persons die suddenly. This may 
comfort the invalid, and be a warning to the strong. 

A donkey may grow, but he will never be an 

' elephant. 

It is not in some men, advance as they may, to 
grow out of their natural folly, and arrive at any 
measure of sagacity. 

A drowning man will catch at razors, 

A man who is losing money will gamble, or specu- 
late, or try the most shameful trick to save himself. 
Thus he hurts himself still more, and makes his ruin 
and wretchedness sure. 



SAL T-CELLARS. 147 

A fair face may be a foul bargain. 

Young men should not be carried away with mere 
beauty, but look to character and disposition. One 
who marries a woman for her beauty alone is as foolish 
as the man who ate a bird because it sang so sweetly. 

A fog cannot be driven away by a fan. 

Trifling acts cannot accomplish great results. 

A fool calls others fools. 

He ought to be a judge of fools since he is in that 
line himself. Perhaps he unconsciously hopes that he 
may turn upon others the contempt which he half sus- 
pects is due to himself. 

A fool is a man who is wise too late. 

This is a sententious and instructive definition. 
Alas, how many are in that condition on a dying bed ! 

A fool in his own house will not be wise in mine. 

If he does not know his own business he will not 
be likely to know mine one-half so well. It is idle to 
seek or accept counsel from one who has already failed 
in the management of his own concerns. 

A fool's gun is soon fired. 

He has little to say, but he is in a desperate hurry 
to say it. In olden times they said "a fool's bolt is 
soon shot." 

A foolish man diligently advertises his own folly. 

He will talk, and talk most upon that which he 
should never mention for his credit's sake. 

A good book is the best companion. 

It wall speak or be quiet, and it neither talks non- 
sense nor perpetrates folly. 



148 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

A good cat should have a good rat. 

And so she will if she catches it herself. God 
helps those who help themselves. We will wish well 
to him who works well. "May the best man win !" 

A good head will save the feet. 

A sensible person takes a practical view of things, 
uses a little foresight, and does two or three things at 
the same time, thus saving future journeys. 

A good horse never lacks a saddle. 

Somebody or other will employ the man of ability, 
character, and tact. The man needs his place, but the 
place also needs the man. 

A good layer up should be a good layer out. 

Hoarding is a vulgar thing which any fool rtiay 
accomplish ; but it needs a wise man to expend judi- 
ciously what has been saved carefully. 

A good worker should have good wages. 

He deserves them, and it will be to his employer's 
interest to see that he has them. Never lose a good 
servant through bad pay. 

A grateful man is a rare bird. 

Yes, he is almost as rare as a phoenix. How often 
does charity receive an ungrateful return ! But we 
must not be discouraged, for we are bound to give our 
alms for Christ's sake, and not to purchase thanks. 

A great cage does not make a bird sing. 

Large possessions bring great cares, and these too 
often silence songs of praise. 

A great man's blunders are great blunders. 

When a whale makes a splash it is a great splash. 
A man of distinguished capacity and position does 
everything, right or wrong, upon a large scale. 



SALT-CELLARS. i49 

A hammer of gold will not open the gates of 
heaven. 

Money opens many of the gates of earth, for brib- 
ery is rife ; but it has no power in the world to come. 
Money is more eloquent than ten members of Parlia- 
ment, but it cannot prevail with the great judge. 

A handsome woman .is soon dressed. 

She does not require such careful setting off. She 
is "most adorned when unadorned the most." 

A hasty man is seldom out of trouble. 

He is constantly offending some one or other and 
picking quarrels right and left. He boils over and 
scalds himself. 

A hedge-hog is a poor bed fellow. 

And so are bad-tempered people, especially Mrs. 
Caudle. 

A hen with one chick seems mighty busy. 

Some persons make as much fuss about little as 
others do who have ten times their work. 

A hundred years hence we shall all be bald. 

Our skulls will be bare as the palm of our hand 
when it has lain a little while in the grave. What's the 
use of making much of trifles which will soon come to 
an end ? So also we may see the folly of those who 
glory in their luxuriant tresses. 

A hungry man is an angry man. 

Never collect subscriptions before dinner, for you 
will get nothing. 

A journey of a thousand miles is begun with a step. 

Beware of despising small beginnings. Some men 
never arrive at usefulness because they are not satisfied 
to begin in a small way, and proceed a step at a time. 



J50 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEOA'. 

A kind face is a beautiful face. 

Even a plain countenance is made absolutely 
charming when a kind disposition lights it up. 

A lazy man makes himself more work by his lazi- 
ness. 

He adopts shifts to save himself trouble ; and as 
these do not answer, it costs him ten times more to do 
the thing than if he had set about it in the right way at 
first. 

A leaden sword in an ivory scabbard is still lead. 

You cannot make a man of one who is no man, 
though you may make him a magistrate, or a minister, 
or an emperor 

A liar never believes other people. 

Of course he does not; he judges them by himself. 

A little fore talk may save much after talk. 

Let the bargain, or agreement, be clearly under- 
stood, that there may be no after contention. Let 
counsel be carefully taken, that there may be no need 
for regret. Better thrice meet for consultation than 
once for lamentation. 

A little gall spoils a great deal of honey. 

A few angry words have embittered the friendship 
of a life. A few bitter sentences have destroyed the 
usefulness of a sweet sermon, and even of a sweet life. 

A little man may cast a long shadow. 

Though his talents are small, his influence may be 
great. A holy life may tell upon a wide circle, and 
prove a blessing to many generations. 

A little oil may save a deal of friction. 

Just a kind word and a yielding manner, and anger 
and complaining will be avoided. 



SALT-CELLARS, 15T 

A little too late is too much too late. 

Punctuality is .an important duty, and we ought to 
be ashamed if we are five minutes behind the promised 
time. 

A little wanness may save great weariness. 

By forethought, contrivance and arrangement, 
much care and labor may be saved. 

A man cannot prosper till he gets his wife's leave. 

She must practice economy, or all his savings may 
melt away. 

A man is known by the company he shuns. 

Quite as much as by the company he keeps. 

A man may be a fool and not know it. 

Indeed it generally is the case that he is not aware 
of his own folly. If he did know it, he would not be a 
fool any longer. 

A man of prayer is a man of power. 

But he. must not be of the same kind as the Berk- 
shire farmer, who said : "It was no use praying for rain 
as long as the wind was in the north." 

A man of silence is a man of sense. 

Even if he has no other sense, he acts sensibly 
when he keeps quiet. He has at least sense enough to 
conceal his want of it. 

A man who will not flee will make his foes flee. 

He only will move the world who will not let the 
world move him. Stand against those whom you 
withstand, and in a short time they will not stand 
against you. 



152 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

A man's tongue should never be larger than his 

hand. 

He should not say more than he can do, nor prom- 
ise more than he can perform. 

A mask is an instrument of torture to a true man. 

He hates all disguise. He wishes to be known and 
read of all men. 

A mischievous dog must be tied short. 

Persons who injure others must have their power 
limited. 

A miser is like a hog — of no use till he is dead. 

Many are hoping that he will cut up well. Our 
societies could do very well with a side of such bacon. 

A nice dog can give a nasty bite. 

Very sweet-spoken men can say slanderous things. 
You fancy that butter would not melt in their mouths ; 
but you soon find that in proportion to the softness of 
their oil is the sharpness of their sword. 

A nimble ninepence beats a slov^ shilling. 

Quickness in trade is a great thing. The oftener 
the capital is turned over, the better. "Small profits 
and quick returns" is a good motto. 

A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse. 

As he can see nothing at all, it matters not how 
you try to direct him. Plenty of men are equally hard 
to guide. 

A parson should not drive a grey horse. 

Because the hair comes off and shows on his black 
coat. Our company and our pursuits should be con- 
gruous to our calling. 



SALT-CELLARS. I53 

A penn}^ is a debt as true 

As if ten thousand pounds were due. 

Little sums are apt to be forgotten, but the princi- 
ple involved in leaving them unpaid is the same as 
knavery in larger amounts. 

A ^ound of idleness weighs twenty ounces. 

That is to say, it is more heavy and burdensome 
than anything else. Doing nothing is hard work. 

A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. 

Resolution will bring the success which the believer 
in luck gapes for in vain. 

A prejudiced man puts out his own eyes. 

He refuses to see the other side of the question. 
His judgment is blinded by his own wilfulness, and 
this is the worst of blindness. 

A rich man may make a poor husband. 

Better to have a treasure in the man than with 
the man. 

A rolling stone gathers no moss. 

This is the home-lover's reason for stopping forever 
in his native village. There is some reason in it, for 
frequent and freakish changes hinder prosperity. 

A sheep should not tire of carrying his own wool. 

He is a lazy man who complains of the v/eight of 
his clothes, the toils of his trade, or the natural care of 
his own family. 

A servant is best discovered by his master's absence. 

That is to say, he is found out by what he does 
when his master goes out and leaves him to himself. 
Then you see whether he is honest and industrious, or 
the reverse. 



154 ^^''■^'^ AiVD WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

A slanderer is a cur that will bite to the bone. 

Like a mad dog, he leaves venom in the wound, 
which may drive the sufferer to madness. 

A soft heart needs a hard head. 

Otherwise sympathy will run away with a man and 
lead him into foolish actions. Judgment must sway the 
feelings and keep them in their right place, or harm 
will be done where good was intended. 

A sparrow may fly as high as it will, 

But it must remain a sparrow still. 

So a person may soar aloft in outward show, and in 
high pretence, but it makes no difference to the man's 
real self. 

A Strong will walks through a wall. 

No difficulty can hinder the man of firm resolution. 

A tame tongue is a rare bird. 

One wishes these birds would multiply till they 
were as numerous as sparrows. 

A tradesman must be self-made or never made. 

He must stick to business, and get on by his own 
energy, or he will not prosper for any length of time. 

A wager is a fool's argument. 

He does not pretend to prove his statements, but 
bawls out, "I'll bet you a p(yund on it," which is neither 
sense nor reason. 

A white devil does double mischief. Beware ! 

Putting on the forrr. of an angel of light, the prince 
of darkness gets advantage over men. Error is terri- 
ble when it professes to be a purer form of Christianity. 



SALT-CELLARS, i55 

A white glove often hides a dirty hand. 

Deceitful professions are used to conceal base 
actions. 

A wise man may often learn from a fool. 

The ignorant man often blunders out absurdities 
which suggest new views, and on some one point he 
may happen to be better informed than the cultured 
man. 

A word once out flies much about. 

Words are like thistle down, and no one knows 
where they will go, and what will grow of them. "Keep 
the door of thy mouth." 

^ ^Almost" never shoots a cock-sparrow. 

The half-hearted man does nothing. He is always 
going to do much, but it ends in mere proposing, and 
comes to nothing. A life which lingers on the verge of 
something, but never comes to anything, is most 
ridiculous. 

** Always at it" wins the day. 

Perseverance conquers every difficulty by its 
dogged determination. He that will not be beaten 
cannot be beaten. He who keeps on pegging away 
will do it sooner or later. 

Alwa3^s leave a little coal for the next day's fire. 

Don't say all on a subject nor spend all on a feast. 

All bread is not baked in one oven. 

No one man, or society, or denomination, or sec- 
tion of the community, can do all the good work that 
is needed in this poor world. 

All is fine that is fit. 

If a thing is suitable it is admirable ; but if unfit for 
its purpose it is often unendurable, however grand may 
be the look of it. 



156 IVIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON. 

All sunshine, and nothing else, makes a desert. 

If we had nothing but prosperity, we should be 
burnt up with worldliness. We may be thankful there 
is no fear of this. 

All the speed is not in the spurs. 

Strength is wanted as well as stimulus. Comforta- 
ble instruction is as needful as earnest exhortation. 

An ape is an ape, though dressed in a cape. 

No garment can long conceal character. The man 
comes out sooner or later. Let nine tailors do their 
best, a fop is not a man for all that. 

An early start makes easy stages. 

To begin promptly causes work to go pleasantly ; 
whereas delay keeps one in a perpetual heat. 

An ill calf may become a good cow. 

We cannot depend upon parentage. Grace does 
not run in the blood. The best of men have the worst 
of children. 

An obedient wife commands her husband. 

By her love the good man is conquered, so that he 
delights to give her pleasure. 

An old dog must bark in his own way. 

There must be much indulgence shown to age and 
long-established habit. 

An open rnouth shows an empty head. 

When persons are so exceedingly ready to chatter, 
it is soon discovered that they know nothing. If there 
had been anything in the box, the owner would have 
had some kmd of fastening for it. 



SAL T-CELLARS. 1 57 

An owl will never teach an eagle to look at the sun. 

Tutors of doubtful character and irreligious prin- 
ciples can never instruct young people in the ways 
of godliness. 

Any boy or girl 3^ou see, can leap o'er a fallen tree. 

As soon as a man is down, there are plenty to 
triumph over him. A hare can sport with the beard of 
a dead lion. In fact, some spirits take peculiar delight 
in pouring contempt upon the great in the day of their 
calamity. 

Any time means no time. 

When a work has no appointed season, it is put off 
from day to day, and in all probability is forgotten and 
neglected altogether. 

As easy as an old shoe, and of as little value too. 

Many are without spirit, and from that reason are 
very agreeable to others, but are worth nothing for 
practical service. 
As they must dig who gather ore, so they must dig 
who gather lore. 

The notion with many is that reading and studying 
are mere amusement ; but if they would try for them- 
selves, they would find that headwork is more tiring 
than handwork. 

As you give love, you will have love. 

This is generally true ; at least, the price of love is 
love. Those who love everybody will win love, or 
better still, they will deserve it. 

As the corn is, such will the flour be. 
As the corn is, such will the walk be. 

This last is not corn in the field, but corn on the 
foot. Corns and bunions do not contribute to a 
pilgrim's progress. 



158 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

As you make your bed, so you must lie on it. 

If young people will choose unfit partners in life, 
they must take the consequences. If they choose 
poverty or vice, they must abide their choice. 

Asses carry the oats, and horses eat them. 

So it comes to pass that mere labor gets little 
compared with the more skilled form of work. The 
proverb indicates a grievance, but hints at the only 
way of escaping it. 

At the sign of the angel, beware of the Devil. 

In Vanity Fair this is the tavern that Diabolus 
always patronizes. 

Avarice is a mad vice. 

The miser is called by French wit, " the treasurer 
of his heir." Poor idiot ! 

Avoid extremes and bubble schemes. 

Avoid that which makes a void in your pocket. 

Bad beef v^ill never make good broth. 

Several meanings may be given to this proverb. 
You cannot get good influences out of bad doctrine. 
Ill-gotten money brings no blessing in its use. Bad 
schemes cannot lead to good results. 

Bad wares are never cheap. 

Yet they catch a crowd of customers. The reason for 
this lies in Gzr/y/^'^ remark, "That the United Kingdom 
contains so many millions of inhabitants, mostly fools ^ 

Bad work is never worth doing. 

It will only need undoing, or if it be left as it is, it 
will be a perpetual abomination. Work thy best, or 
let it rest. 



SALT-CELLARS. i59 

Bare-footed folk should not tread on thorns. . 

Those who are particularly sensitive in any direc- 
tion, should keep out of the way of the evil they dread. 

Be little fish if you have but a little water. 
Accommodate yourself to your condition. 

Be a man before your mother. 

Some do not seem as if they would be. The mere 
dandy is like his mother in this only ; she will never be 
a man,, nor will he. 

Be always valorous, but seldom venturous. 

We are to be ready for all that comes, but we are 
not to seek conflict. Face a lion if you must, but don't 
go down to the circus and get into a cage with him of 
your own accord. 

Be always ahead of your work. 

Then you will be comfortable. If you are behind- 
hand you will be constantly whipped at the cart's tail 
of hurry. 

Be as neat as a pin, and as brisk as a bee. 

Appearance and deportment may seem little 
things, but they greatly effect success in life. Em- 
ployers like to have about them persons who are neat 
in attire and quick in their movements. Nobody wants 
to have a bundle of old rags rolling about his shop. 

Be careful, but not full of care. 

It has been well said that our anxiety does not 
empty to-morrow of its sorrows, but only empties 
to-day of its strength. 

Be good, and then do good. 

You canuot really do more than you are. 



i6o WIT AND WISDOM OF SPUR GEO A'. 

Be hardy, but not hard. 

Endure hardship yourself; but do not become un- 
kind to others because you are strong and can rough 
it. A hardy man with a tender heart is a beautiful 
character; but an unfeeling tyrant is a curse to his 
household. 

Be honest, and thus outwit the rogues. 

Honesty perplexes the cunning. They think you 
are practising some deep policy, and they are baffled. 

Be low in humihty and high in hope. 

He who will not bend his head in humility will run 
against a beam ; he that will not hold up his head in 
hopefulness will not be cheered by an early sight of 
the good which is waiting for him. 

Be merrily wise and wisely happy. 

It is to be done, though it will need prudence and 
prayer. 

Be not ever and over touchy. 

Too much sensitiveness will be avoided by a sensi- 
ble man. Persons who are easily aggrieved will have 
a sad time of it in this rough-and-tumble world. 

Be not everybody's dog that whistles you. 

Have a mind of your own, and do not follow first 
one leader and then another. ^ 

Be old when young, that you may be young when 

old. 

Prudence, sobriety and true godliness, are sup- 
posed to be appropriate to the aged; but we should 
possess them in our youth. So may we hope to be 
preserved in health and vigor when years have multi- 
plied upon us. 



SALT-CELLARS. i6i 

Be not honey abroad and wormwood at home. 

Do not spend all our good humor on strangers, 
and then sulk and scold in your own house. Some 
read it, "Be not an angel abroad and a devil at home." 
Who but a hypocrite will bring himself under the cen- 
sure of this proverb. 

Be quiet : walls have ears. 

Nobody knows who may be listening. Say noth- 
ing which you would not wish put in the daily papers. 

Be sure you know your own know. 

Don't pretend to knowledge and then break down 
under a question or two. Also, be quite sure of what 
you know, and let nobody beat you from your belief. 

Be your own most useful friend : 
Cease on others to depend. 

An ancient philosopher once said, "I am the only 
one of my friends that I can rely upon." A friend may 
help you over a stile, but he cannot be expected to 
carry you on his back. 

Beauty wins, but bounty holds. 

The eye is charmed by an elegant appearance but 
the actual receipt of kindness is that which retains the 
heart. 

Bear the hen's cackle for the sake of the eggs. 

Little annoyances must be put up with because of 
great advantages. The rattle of machinery and the 
noise of traffic must be endured for the sake of 
business. 

Before a fool handles a whip he ought to feel it on 
his own back. 

Not meant to be a cruel observation, but to prevent 
much of that cruelty which arises from ignorance of 
the pain which the lash is causing. 



1 62 IVIT AND WISDOM OF SPURCEON. 

Before you decide, hear the other side. 

This is sensible advice, but many persist in the 
neglect of it. 

Before you mount look to your girth. 

Applicable to many mounts besides those upon a 
horse's back. Many men accept offices which they 
cannot fulfill, and enter upon positions which they 
cannot maintain. 

Before you trust the cat, put the cream out of reach. 

Remove temptation even from those in whom you 
have confidence. He who bids you pray, "Lead us not 
into temptation," would not have you lead others into it. 

Bend the bo3^'s neck, or he'll be a stiff-necked man. 

Want of training to obedience in youth is the 
cause of much of the disorder and love of anarchy 
which we see in certain classes of society. The child 
is getting to be the father of the man with a vengeance, 
and the father is coming to be the son's slave. 

Better a good groat than a bad bank book. 

Sincerity makes the least man to be of more value 
than the most talented hypocrite. 

Better a salt tongue than an oily one. 

Sensible persons prefer a little sharp honesty to 
glib conceit. We say, "Speak the truth, shame the 
devil," but we know some who warp the truth, and 
please the devil. 

Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit. 

' Wit is a razor, and if it be in unwise hands it may 
injure men. It needs great sense to play the fool, and 
the man who attempts wit should have all his wits 
about him. 



SALT-CELLARS. 163 

.Better be a lean bird in the wood than a fat one in 
a cage. 

The sweets of libert}^ are worth paying for. The 
Creoles say that "fat has no feeling," hence the fat bird 
does not fret about the cage. 

Better be half an hour too soon than a minute too 
late. 

Then you only lose your own time, but in the other 
case you are wasting the time of others. If you keep 
four persons waiting a quarter of an hour, you have 
stolen an hour of their time. 

Better bread in the lap, than feather in the cap. 

A supply for necessities is better than mere honor 
or the pretence of it. "Rag and famish" is a poor 
motto. 

Better dove without serpent, than serpent without 
dove. 

■Simplicity without prudence is better than subtlety 
without sincerity. Yet when a fellow will not do right 
when softly persuaded by your dove, it may be wise to 
set your serpent at him. 

Better eat humble pie than no pie at all. 

Some throw themselves out of a situation sooner 
than apologize for a fault or put up with a rebuke. 
This is extreme folly. 

Better half a loaf than no bread at all. 

If wages be not so high as we could wish, yet if we 
are out of work for a single week it will take months 
to recover the loss. Strikes hurt the striker, even if 
they win. 

Better keep peace than make peace. 

What are small gains compared with the pearl of 
peace. 



i64 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

Better leave undone than have to undo. 

When a case is doubtful, it is best to do nothing till 
you see what to do, for if we do the wrong thing it may 
make bad worse. 

Better live on a little than outlive a great deal. 

Economy must be strictly practiced when a busi- 
ness is in peril, for the greatest pinching will be better 
than losing the chance of a livelihood. Cultivate fore- 
thought upon a little oatmeal. Do not by extravagance 
kill the goose which lays the golden ^zz- 

Better out of fashion than out of credit. 

Some spend 50 much to be fashionable that they 
get into debt, and loose credit with their neighbors. 
"You must be in fashion," is the utterance of weak- 
headed mortals. • 

Better 'serve God in a city than a cell. 

Because there is more opportunity for doing good 
among the masses. Lonely service may be good for 
me, but what is to become of perishing millions. 

Better wear out shoes than sheets. 

Industry is much to be preferred to indolent self-indul- 
gence. Better trudge along the road to success than 
doze one's self into failure. 

Better work for nothing than become lazy. 

It is really so. Gentlemen who have retired from 
business often take up an unpaid occupation to keep 
them from absolute weariness of life. 

Between said 'd.wd. done a race may be run. 

It is generally desired that they may very nearly 
keep pace with each other. SaidwWX be a little ahead,, 
but done should follow at his heel. 



SALT-CELLARS. 165 

Beware of having more notion than motion. 

We see everywhere persons who know more than 
they practice, and have more conceit than industry, 
more doctrine in the head than holiness in life. Let 
such men serve us as beacons. 

Beware of men made of molasses. 

Persons who are very plausible and exceedingly 
polite have generally some design upon you, as also 
religionists who call you "dear" the first time they see 
you, and are forever prating of a love which lies only 
on their lips, and lies even there. 

Beware of mettle in a blind horse. 

He is apt to dash into danger. He must go, and 
he does not see where. Many zealots are so ignorant 
that they come under this proverb' ; they are danger- 
ous when they are not well guided. 

Beware of the stone thou stumblest at before. 

We shall be doubly guilty if we do not learn to 
avoid in future that which has already proved an occa- 
sion of sin to us. 

Beware of two black eyes. 

Whether in your own head, or in the lovely face of 
a doubtful woman. 

Bitter truth should be sweetly spoken. 

We should be anxious to cause no more offence 
than naturally goes with the truth itself. Coat your 
pills with sugar. 

Borrowing may be tried once, but only once. 

Sudden need may come to any one, but the habit of 
running to others should not be formed, much less 
continued. 



1 66 WIT A A '/; / l^ISn OM OF SP UR GE OA '. 

Bought wit lasts longest. 

It makes a deep impression on the memory and 
usually remains for life. Its serious price helps its 
preservation. 

Blue is blue, but there may be better blue. 

True and faithful, good and generous as a man may 
be, there may be others quite as good, if not better. 

Both folly and wisdom grow with our years. 

Too often they seem to grow side by side. Some 
know better and do worse. Time makes some mellow 
and others rotten. 

Bread baked must be eaten. 

Either by ourselves or somebody. Our conduct 
has results and very sad ones, too, in some cases, 

Brevity is a fine thing in a speech. 

Want of study, and want of really knowing what 
one is driving at, must bear the blame of many a long 
and weary talk. Hence a short speech is usually of 
better quality than a long one; and if it is not, it is all 
the better that it is short. 

Bring up your boy to nothing, and he'll be a rogue. 

He will ha-ve nothing to do, and he will do it dili- 
gently. Of course he will run into bad company, and 
wicked men and the devil together will soon make 
a tool of him. 

Buttons all right are husbands' delight. 

What vexation may be caused by neglect of such a 
little thing as a button ! Let wives think nothing 
trivial which tends to peace. 

* 'Candidly but cautiously," said the wise man. 

So should we always speak the truth by all means, 
but that truth with caution ; for there are so many 
lying upon the catch that one has need to look at his 
words twice before he speaks them. 



SAL T- CELLARS. 1 6 7 

Carry your eyes in your own head. 

Judge for yourself; don't make another your guide. 

Cast not dirt into the well which gives you water. 

Find not fault with those who feed you, nor with 
the trade which supports you, nor with the Lord who 
gives you all things. 

Cats in mittens catch no r:"ce. 

Persons who are fastidious in dress seldom ac- 
complish much. A minister who preaches in gloves is 
usually too fine a gentleman to move men's con- 
sciences. 

Cats know the ways of cats. 

Certain classes of people know one another's ways, 
which cannot be comprehended by strangers. 

Cease play when it ceases to be play. 

When bad temper creeps in because the weaker 
does not like to be beaten, drop the game. It is meant 
for pleasure ; end it when it comes to pain. 

Censure from the bad is true praise. 

When Agesliaus heard any persons praised or cen- 
sured, he remarked that it was as necessary to know 
the characters of the critics as the character of the 
person of whom they spoke. Slander is the homage 
which vice pays to virtue. If the wicked praised us, 
we should have to ask with the stoic, *'What have I 
done wrong, that these fellows should speak well of 
me?" 

Character is a man's best capital. 

It is the backbone of success, especially with those 
employed by others. Young men see that you do not 
impoverish yourself by wasting this precious stock in 
trade of life. 



i68 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

Charity is the salt of riches. 

Sprinkle a good deal of it over your income. Be 
not one of those of whom Sidney Smith said, that they 
were "ready to act the good Samaritan, without the 
oil and the twopence." 

Charity should be warmest when the season is 
coldest. 

Then is the time for coals and blankets, and the 
more the merrier. It will warm your hearts to warm 
poor people's bodies. 

Cheerfulness smoothes the road of life. 

It either gathers out the stones, or else trips so 
lightly over them that they are not noticed. 

Chide thy friend in private, praise him in public. 

The first will prove that thy faithfulness is full of 
love, and the second that thy love is not ashamed to 
own itself. This is what thou wouldst expect of him, 
therefore so act towards him. 

Children never tell what they don't know. 

They are best sent out of the way when things are 
talked of which you do not wish reported. 

Chins without beards are better than heads without 
brains. 

Young men, when wise, are to be preferred to 
those without sense, who have not even youth to ex- 
cuse their folly. When Queen Elizabeth had sent a 
somewhat young ambassador to a foreign court, and 
the king complained of it, the ambassador replied, "If 
Her Majesty had known that you measure wisdom by 
beards, she would have sent you a goat." 

Choose a kit from a good cat. 

Daughters will probably be like their mothers ; 
therefore the mother is a good guide for a young man 
in selecting a wife. 



SALT-CELLARS. 169 

Clean hands are better than clever hands. 

Much is made of cleverness nowadays but the 
devil is the cleverest of all, and yet he is most wicked. 

Clean your tongue as well as your teeth. 

This is easier said than done. 

Compassion will do more than passion. 

The kindly warmth of the sun made the traveller 
take off his cloak, while the cutting wind could not 
tear it off, but made him bind it closer about him ; so 
love does more than wrath. 

Constant occupation removes temptation. 

In a great measure it does so. David sinned with 
Bathsheba when he stayed at home from battle, and 
was resting on liis bed in day time. 

Cool head and warm heart : these should never be 
apart. 

Lest we should be carried away by excitement, and 
lose our balance of mind. 

"Couldn't help it" doesn't mend it. 

Frequent is the excuse, *T couldn't help it." It 
does not comfort the injured party, and it is seldom 
true. The Creoles very wisely say, "Asking my par- 
don does not cure the bumps you made on my fore- 
head." 

Count money after your own kin. 

In trade transactions deal with relatives as you 
would with strangers, so far as methods of business are 
concerned. This rule is a wise one and promotes love. 

Courage needs eyes as well as arms. 

We must not blindly rush into danger. Fearless 
need not be heedless. True courage is not cousin to 
rashness. 



170 WIT AND WISDOM' OF SPURGEON. 

Cows forget that they were calves. 

Elderly persons fail to remember that they were 
once young themselves, and so they do not make 
allowance for juveniles around them. 

Credit won by lying is quick in dying. 

For very soon the falsehood is found out. Truth is 
like a cuckoo ; you cannot hedge it in, nor prevent its 
voice being heard. 

Crowbars swallowed strengthen the back. 

Hard things, when patiently endured, tend to 
increase our rnental and spiritual strength. An old 
friend of mine told me in my youth that I should have 
to swallow many bush-fagots cross-ways. I have done 
so, and have found the process of great service in 
clearing the throat. 

Cursing men are cursed men. 

For curses are like processions, which go their 
round and come home again. \ 

'Cutting off a mule's ears won't make him a horse. 

Mere change of appearance is of little value. So 
taking away some one glaring folly will not change a 
man's nature ; the proverb is Creole. The Italians 
say, "Cut off a dog's tail and he remains a dog." 

Daylight will peep through a very small hole. 

Secrets are made known by very simple circum- 
stances. Truth is disseminated by the weakest means. 

Dirt}^ linen should be washed at home. 

Family quarrels should not be made public. 
Almost any degree of suffering is better than public 
exposure of private wrongs and personal bickerings. 



SA L 7 -CELLARS. 1 7 1 

Do not growl, lest ^^ou be taken for a clog. 

Certain persons can never be pleased. They are 
cynics, and prove their right to the name by their 
dogged complaints. 

Do the duty that lies nearest thee. 

''Whatsoever thy hand findeth," said Solomon, 
"do with thy might." Carlisle says: "Our grand 
business is not to. see what lies dimly at a distance, but 
to do what lies clearly at hand.'' Do the next thing. 

Do to others as you would that they should do to you. 

The golden rule, but not the rule by which to get 
gold. It is much admired in church, but if it were to 
wander into the exchange or the market, it would be 
locked up by the beadle. The world's golden rule is, 
"Do others, or others will do you." 

Don't accuse the times to excuse yourself. 

The times are good enough for men who are good 
enough. If times are hard we must work harder. 

Don't be above your business, nor below it. 

To be too proud to attend to your work, or too 
uneducated to do it thoroughly, will be equally inju- 
rious. There is an honor in hard work. The French 
rule is "Respect the burden," and every burden of 

labor is respectable. 

» 
Don't bet even a farthing cake. 

This was the very largest wager of an old friend of 
ours, and then he always stipulated that he should 
himself have the first bite, whether he won or not. 
We don't recommend even this. 

Don't blow the broth which does not burn you. 

If there's no real fault, don't blame a man. Never 
grumble without cause. If it's no concern of yours, 
let it alone. 



172 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. - 

Don't burn your candle at both ends. 

It will go fast enough at one. Don't lose your 
wages in holidays, and at the same time spend your 
money in your frolics. 

Don't carve another man's leo; of mutton. 

Some are very pleased when they are eating and 
drinking at other people's expense ; but it never pays 
with men of honor, for they feel bound to make a 
return, and they will be called on to do it. 

Don't crawl all day over one cabbage leaf. 

The movements of some parties are so slow that 
this admonition might be fairly addressed to them. A 
master once asked his gardener, "John, did you ever see 
a snail?" "Yes, sir." "Then," said the master, "I 
am sure you met it, for you would never have over- 
- taken it." 

Don't cut down an oak to plant a thistle. 

To destroy an old institution for some new non- 
sense is not wise. 

Don't fight for the shell and lose the kernel. 

This is done when mere words are the ground of 
contention, and essential doctrine is overlooked. 

Don't give a good pail of milk, and then put your 
foot in it. 

Cows sometimes do this ; but it is by no means a 
pleasure to the farmer. Don't do a good action and 
spoil it by your after conduct ; nor preach a good ser- 
mon and contradict it. As a rule do not "put your 
foot in it," in any sense. An Irishman observed that 
whenever he opened his mouth he put his foot in it. 
Don't imitate him. 



SALT-CELLARS. 173 

Don't go out woolly and come home shorn. 

Plenty do this who would have been more sensible 
had they staid at home ; they leave the old faith for 
something more attractive and lose their comfort, if 
not their character. 

Don't hold with the hare and run with the hounds. 

Jack-o-both-sides generally catches it from both 
parties before long. Don't play the game of double- 
shuffle. 

Don't let 3^our feet run faster than your shoes. 

It is unwise to go faster than you can do with safety 
and comfort. Many have brought their bare feet to 
the ground by spending more than their income could 
provide. 

Don't let your heart sink into your hose. 

Fear makes the heart go down into the stocking. 
But heart in hose is out of place. Why fear if you are 
right. 

Don't meddle, or you'll muddle. 

Is it not generally the case, that those who inter- 
fere do more harm than good? These amateur cooks 
spoil the broth. 

Don't pick a man up before he is down. 

Don't correct him before he has made a mistake. 

Don't put all your eggs into one basket. 

It is unwise to risk all that you have in any one 
concern. If you have any savings, put them in several 
places. The marines' form -of this saying is, "Don't 
ship all your goods in one vessel." 

Don't put on so much coal as to put out the fire. 

You can lay so many books on the brain as to bury 
it, and teach children so much that they learn nothing, 
and preach so long that the people forget all that is 
said. 



174 ^^'-^T AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON, 

Don't roll m the mire to please the pigs. 

Do nothing wrong to please those who take delight 
in evil- 

Don't shiver with last winter's cold. 

Let not past sorrows be remembered. If the 
memory of them awakens gratitude, well and good ; 
but if they renew your pain it is foolish to raise them 
from the grave of the past 

Don't sow your wild oats; they are bad reaping. 

Many talk as if young people ought to be vicious 
for a times or as if it was a very excusable thing for a 
young man to be impure in his behavior. This is very 
pernicious. Alas ! throughout life men have had to 
feel in their bones the sins of their youth. 

Don't spend other peoples' money. 

This is too often done. Expenditure upon credit, 
tampering with trusts, and many other matters come 
under the last of this sentence. 

Don't throw good money after bad. 

It is useless to spend your money in going to law 
with a person who will not or cannot pay. If you sue 
a beggar you know what you will get, and that fact 
should make you forbear. 

Don't trust a rickety chair or a tricky man. 

For if you do, you may get an ugly fall, or find 
yourself deceived. ■ It is risky to ride broken kneed 
horses, or to trust men who have already failed, and 
fellows who have once deceived you. 

Drink like a fish — water only. 

Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in 
debt, nor his wife a widow. But some men are like the 
drunken Parisian, who declared that in his childhood 
he had been bitten by a mad-dog, and consequently 
had a horror of water. 



SALT-CELLARS. I75 

Drive one plow at a time. 

Turn all your strength in one direction. Divided 
energies threaten failure. "One thing I do," is a good 
motto. 

Dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad. 

That is to say, as a general rule. One does not 
turn up his nose at a roast or boiled when one is at a 
friend's house, or sojourning by the sea, or wandering 
among the alps. Still there's no table, no bed, no fire- 
side, no home, no wife like our own. 

Ducks lay eggs; geese lay wagers. 

Such geese are very common near our common, 
especially towards Derby Day. Where is the sense of 
this mania for gambling ? We need not ask where is 
the morality of it ? 

Early up and never the nearer. 

A man might as well keep in bed if he does not 
rightly use his time after he has risen. The main mat- 
ter is not rising early, but well spending the day. 

East or West, home is best. 

Foreign travel pleases for a season, but the heart 
turns to home as the needle to the pole. He has no 
home who does not love it dearly. 

Empty tubs are easily rolled. 

When there is nothing in a man he has no stability 
but is easily persuaded and deluded. A drunkard said 
he was sure the world was round, for he rolled about 
so ; and certain others have a sort of mental reeling 
which can only come of emptiness. 

Even a plowman can see who is a true gentleman. 

An indescribable something in tone, manner and 
spirit, will cause the most uncultured mind to see who 
is the true gentleman, and who the mere pretender. 



176 WI7^ AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON. 

Even Soloman was not always wise. 

Indeed he was the greatest fool of his time. He 
was always the most knowing, but not always the 
wisest man. 

Every fool will give advice, but few of them will 
take it. 

Indeed it needs much good sense to be willing to 
be advised. The humility and self diffidence which 
will submit to be led by the wisdom of the really pru- 
dent are rarer than we think. 

^very girl can keep house better than her mother 

till she tries. 

This is the fault of many young folks; they know 
nothing about a matter, but yet feel that they could do 
the business in first rate style. The proof of the pud- 
ding is in the eating, and the proof of the work is in the 
doing and the lasting. 

Every man carries an enemy inside his own 

waiscoat. 

He had better watch that fellow, or he will be 
stabbing at his heart or tampering with his conscience. 

Every one is wise after the business is over. 

This is the special wisdom of the unwise. Yet we 
could all do much better if we had to do it over again ; 
at least we think so. We are fools enough to imagine 
that we should not be fools again. 

Every peddler sells the best pins. 

At least he says so, and he ought to know. 

Every tub must stand on its own bottom. 

We are individually accountable, and no one can 
hide behind another, so as to justify himself. 



SALT-CELLARS. 177 

Everybody's friend is nobody's friend. 

His universal generosity lies all in talk. He is not 
to be depended on. He is always helping so many 
that he cannot come to your aid. 

Everything comes to the man who can wait. 

It is only a matter of time. Patience beholds great 
wonders. In spiritual things, if we watch and wait, 
we shall see glorious things. 

Expect nothing from those who promise a great deal. 

Their readiness to promise should make you more 
than a little suspicious. They would not issue so many 
bank notes if they had to keep enough gold in the 
cellar to meet them. 

Expectation is a fool's income. 

He is always looking for something which has 
never yet occurred, and never will occur in his time. 
His ship is to come home, but as yet it is not launched. 
He has an estate somewhere, which is to come to him 
when we have a week all Sundays, but at present the 
rightful owner is depriving him of it. 

Expensive wife makes pensive husband. 

When the draper's bill drains his pocket, the poor 
man thinks more than he dares to say. The arithmetic 
of a good wife is very different. She adds to his happi- 
ness, suhstracts from his cares, multiplies his joys, 
divides his sorrows, and practices reduction in the 
expenditure of his household. 

Face to face clears many a case. 

Quarrels are fomented by hearsay statements and 
reports. Bring the parties together and let the truth 
come out. 



178 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGEON: 

Faint heart never won fair lady. 

Faint heart sees dangers where there are none, and 
so avoids attempts which might succeed. Doubtless 
even in the tender business of courtship this operates 
to the young man's injury. If he is afraid to propose, 
he can hardly expect her to do so. 

Feed a pig and you'll have a hog 

V 

Those who are of a swinish nature only grow worse 
when they receive either kindness or consideration. 

Fight, but fight only with yourself. 

Self conquest is the greatest of victories. Many 
have vanquished all others, and yet have been slaves 
to their own passions. 

First practice at home, then preach abroad. 

It is not every man that would like to preach to 
his neighbors from, his own doorstep. 

Folly and learning may live under one hat. 

Book learning may carry a man far from truth and 
common sense ; experience is needed, and grace of 
God, to make true wisdom. 

Fools should never set on eggs. 

They will addle them or break them, but never 
hatch them. This saying means that designs which 
need patient attention must never be left to unwise 
people. 

Frogs in a well know nothing of the high seas. 

Men with narrow range of knowledge and expe- 
rience cannot calculate the greatness of the divine 
designs, nor even understand the larger ideas of more 
instructed men. 



SALT-CELLARS, ^79 

Give the birds crumbs ; God gives you loaves. 

In the winter pay the birds for the songs of spring 
by feeding them. In Sweden a sheaf is always left for 
the birds. 

Go after w^isdom, or it will never come to you. 

A suggestive preacher once said, ''Do not suppose 
that wisdom is so much flattered at having you for a 
pupil that she will set you easy lessons, and yet give 
you the gold medal." 

Good sees good, and foul sees foul. 

This accounts for the various reports which men 
give concerning the moral condition of a neighbor- 
hood. Each man notices that which is after his own 
mind. If a vulture fly over a region he would spy out 
carcases, where a dove would note clean corn. 

Giving is generally a kind of fishing. 

They give a sprat to catch a salmon. Orientals are 
great at this art, and some in these Western parts are 
becoming proficient. 

Fretting cares make grey hairs. 

And this is all they make. What is the use of them ? 

Good wives if they were sold 
Were well worth crowns of gold. 

But nobody wishes to sell them ; and nobody could 
buy them if he wished to do so. 

Goose and gander are very much alike. 

What is true of woman is true of man^ for bad or 
good. 



i8o WIT AND WISDOM OF SPURGE ON 

Gossiping and lying are brother and sister. 

Alas, for the misery which is caused by a long 
tongue ! The quantity of the gossip could not be kept 
up if it were restricted to truth, and so evil inventions 
are added thereto. These at first are a sort of spice 
and flavoring, but in time they become the principal 
ingredient. A modern essayist defines gossip as, 
"the putting of two and two together, and making five 
of them." S3.Y Jiffy and you are nearer the mark. 

Great oaks were once little acorns. 

Despise not the day of small things. Despair not 
because your strength is little. Who knows what you 
may be or do. 

Great weight may hang on small wires. 

On a word or even a look the history of a nation 
has depended. On a single act a man's whole life may 
turn. 

Grind no man's name ; seek other grist. 

Yet some are never so pleased as when they have 
a gracious man between their millstones, and are re- 
ducing his character to dust. 

Guilt on the conscience puts grief on the counte- 
nance. 

Where it is real and deep, it is a hard matter to 
conceal conviction of sin. This heaviness of the heart 
makes a man stoop. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 181 066 A 



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